The Gifts Our Parents Gave Us
by ponytail30527
Summary: It was sad that the kids didn't know thier parents, but maybe they can learn them by finding thier hidden talents that thier parents left them. Credit to halfhuman123 for the idea
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, First I want to thank halfhuman123 for the idea! She and I were chatting and then we came up with this story! **

**I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar**

"Athena wake up" Elli whispered as she shook on Athena's down feathered shoulder late one night.

Athena mumbled as she fluttered her brown eyes open. When she did, she saw Elli. "Elli" she said still half asleep. "What seems to be the problem? Please don't tell me Marshal played a prank on you again." She said ready to kill Marshal. Again.

Elli shook her head. "Buttons is having a hard time sleeping."

"Why do you think I can help?" Athena asked rubbing her eyes.

"Marshal won't help, and I don't know what to do." Elli explained. She took her flipper. "Come with me, he's over there." She said to Athena as she led her to Buttons, who was rolling around trying to fall asleep mumbling and groaning.

Athena smiled at the little penguin. "What's the matter Buttons?" she said leaning down to him trying to help. She smoothed her flippers along his head.

Buttons opened his little blue eyes at her and moaned. "Sleepy" he grunted out.

Athena thought for a minute. _What gets people to fall asleep? I know that Uncle Rico falls asleep to lullabies, maybe Buttons will to considering that he's his son. Well not biologically. _She thought to herself. It made her a little sad to think that her parents were dead, but she couldn't do anything about it. Then she got an idea. She started to sing a lullaby to her friend.

"_Sun goes down and we are here together_

_Fireflies glow like a thousand charms_

_Stay with me and you can dream forever_

_Right here in my arms."_

Elli and Marshal gawked. Athena had a beautiful singing voice!

"She's really good isn't she Marshal?" Elli asked.

Marshal nodded and got his trouble grin on. "Now she can hear it too." He said before taking out a mini tape recorder to record Athena's singing. Oh boy! Here's another trouble making brother scheme!

"_It's magic when you are here beside me_

_Close your eyes and let me hold you tight_

_Everything that I could ever need _

_Is right here in my arms tonight"_

Just after that, Buttons was snoring and sucking on his flipper.

Athena smiled at a job well done. "Night Buttons" Athena said before giving him a small hug and heading back over to her side of the incubation chamber. "Let's go back to sleep. School's tomorrow." She said to Marshal and Elli.

Marshal hid the tape recorder behind his back. "Yep" he said with a fake smile.

"Athena" Elli said walking over to her. "Where did you learn that song? I've never heard it before." She whispered in her cute little accent, so Buttons wouldn't hear them.

Athena shrugged. "I've always…just…known it." She answered. "I think I remembered it subconsciously from when my dad sang to me when I was little. That's the only way I could think of."

Elli nodded, but she didn't think her Uncle Kowalski would sing a song about that. She did love him like all of her uncles, but it seemed like he'd sing songs about educational stuff that was a different language to everyone except him and Athena. "Night" she said. _Perhaps I can sleep on it._

"Night" Marshal and Athena said simultaneously.

Then, everyone went to sleep.

**At school. . . . . . . **

"And that concludes today's math lesson" Mason said setting down a piece of white chalk down next to a number congested chalk board. "Form a study group and do problem 1-12 on the board please." He said before going on a banana break with Phil.

Marshal probably would've moaned, but this would've been a great opportunity to talk about his new plans with Peanut and Eggy. "Hey guys" he said when he sat down with his two best friends. "I've got something to show ya later." He said proudly.

Peanut and Eggy smiled. "Prank on Joey?" Eggy asked wondering if he should get the first aid kit again.

Marshal shook his head. "Better, I'll show it to ya later, because Athena will kill me if she finds out." He said pointing over to Athena, who was in a study group with Elli, Haley, Maurisa, and Nellie as always.

"Okay, that's number 3 so, let's go on to number 4." Athena said in her little study group.

Maurisa stuck her paw in the air.

"Stuck on a problem Maurisa?" Athena asked when she noticed Maurisa's dark black paw in the air.

Maurisa shook her head. "You got number three wrong. You have to add the exponent." Maurisa pointed out pointing to number three on her friend's paper. "See,

Everyone stared at her with a shocked expression, but Athena's was the most shocked out of all the girls.

Maurisa shrugged. "What?"

Athena looked down at her paper and redid the problem. "Good Galileo you're right!" she said a little envious. _I just got served in school! _She thought to herself. _In school!_

A few minutes later, Mason told everyone that they had to turn their papers in. Then it was recess!

Marshal took this opportunity to play the tape to his friends. "Hey dudes over here!" he said motioning his friends over to him as he took out the tape recorder somewhere Athena couldn't see, which was behind the brick wall of the zoovenier shop.

Peanut and Eggy's faces dropped. "No! Not your dad's log again!" Peanut said staring at the tape recorder like it was a horror movie's creation. "Remember what happened last time?" Eggy asked referring to operation love letter.

All the boys shuddered.

"No, this is just a tape recorder, but listen to this." He said as he pressed a red play button on the little black tape recorder to start playing.

"_Sun goes down and we are here together_

_Fireflies glow like a thousand charms_

_Stay with me and you can dream forever_

_Right here in my arms."_

He pressed it again to make it stop. "That's Athena." He said to his friends, who were starring at the cape with wide eyes as if an angel popped out and began to sing. It probably wouldn't have been better than Athena's voice even.

"Yeah, who knew her geeky beak could sing?" Marshal asked with a small laugh.

"Wow, you know, Athena should sing for her dad's birthday next week!" Peanut said getting a little excited. "All we need to do is set up a stage, get a microphone, a song, a few instruments, and she'd be great!" he sighed and squeezed his two black paws together. "I could be a guitar player just like I dreamed I would!"

Marshal stopped laughing. "It's Uncle Kowalski's birthday next week?" Marshal asked getting nervous.

Eggy starred at him shocked. "You didn't know? How could you not, he's been going on about it for weeks!" he said with a laugh. "You don't remember? He waddled in the meeting last week with a big grin on his face!"

"That could've been gas!" Marshal said defending himself. "Besides, smiling doesn't mean it's your birthday."

"No, but then he announced to everyone what he'd want for his birthday!" Peanut said shaking his head in disbelief. "You're not kidding about that are you dude? Me and my mom already finished our present for him three days ago!"

Marshal smiled. "Do you think there's room for one more name on the-"

"No, nope, sorry Marshal, it's very special and we put a lot of work into it!" Peanut said shaking his head from side to side. "I'll help you out on finding another one, but you can't put your name on mine."

Marshal sighed. "All I have right now is this stupid tape-Hey! I've got the perfect idea!"

"What?" Eggy asked.

"I should convince Athena to sing for Kowalski's birthday party. Like helping out Athena with her present, but since it was my idea, it would count as my own! It'll be tough, I may not survive, but with you two helping me, we'll be unstoppable!"

"What makes it hard with convincing Athena to sing happy birthday?" Eggy asked.

"Athena's got stage fright like you wouldn't believe." Peanut explained. He smiled at the memory. "One time, she just got onstage from the puppet show my mom put on for us when we were little to pick up an abacus bead, when she saw the crowd of people looking at her, and she threw up her breakfast all over my mom's pink fuzzy sock." He shook his head and crossed his arms looking up, but he was smiling. "Never got out"

"Wow, Marshal, we're gonna have to work hard on this one." Eggy said imagining a barfed up pink fuzzy sock with little buttons for the eyes. "If we don't, then you never gave your uncle a birthday present!"

Marshal smiled his trouble grin. "I know we can do it."

**Oh, boy a few talents have blossomed! Athena's a singer and Maurisa's a math Wiz! :D**

**Leave a review and bye!! **

**Oh, and I don't own anything! Not the song or POM, just my O.C.'s : )**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yay! The next chapter of my new story! Thank for the complements, oh and the song in the last chapter is a Barbie song used in "Barbie, as the Island Princess!" It's a good song, so if you want to check it out, you can : )**

**Anyways, onto the story**

Peanut had suggested that Marshal ask Athena first, so after school, Marshal ran home knowing that he was going to have to start begging Athena right away if he wanted her to agree in time for his uncle's birthday. He shuddered at the thought as he jumped in the water and swam to their fake island then made his way down their fishbowl entrance. He wondered why he made that a secret when it seemed like everyone in the zoo, besides the humans, knew it was there, but he could probably think about that later. "Athena!" he called out making the penguin look up at him with a cocked brow.

She made her way over to Marshal. "Marshal, if this is a set up for one of your pranks," she started.

"It's not!" Marshal exclaimed. He rolled his blue eyes. "Jeez, you pull a few of them, and next thing you know, it's like everyone's has to take cover when you enter the room."

Elli walked in the room holding a piece of paper. "Hey Athena, can you help me out with my math-It's Marshal! Take cover!" she said running into another room making Athena smirk at Marshal, he just rolled his eyes.

Athena then frowned when Elli's words sunk in. _math homework. _"Ugh, I don't even want to look at math ever again!" she said aggravated as she stomped away leaving a very confused Marshal behind her. She sat down and let out a loud sigh. "You think you have a talent for something, and then the next thing you know, someone beats you at number three." She said remembering Maurisa's math talent earlier at school.

"Huh? Oh, never mind that, Athena, what are you getting your dad for his birthday?" Marshal asked.

Athena looked up at him. "Well…I'm in the middle of making an invention for him of course!" she said with a small laugh. At least she did have one talent. "Why?" she asked.

Marshal smiled. "Okay, I was saying we work on a present _together_." He said making Athena more confused. Since when did Marshal give a hoot about her? "Remember last night with Buttons?" he asked making Athena nod. "I think that you should _sing _for your dad's birthday." He said this time making Athena's brown eyes widen ten times bigger and shook her head. "I know you have stage fright, but I'm begging you!" he said as he flushed his dignity down the toilet by getting on his knees and look up at her with puppy dog eyes. "Pweeaasse!" he begged with his fluffy grey and black flippers squeezed together in front of him.

Athena moaned and tried to leave the area just to get out of this conversation. "Marshal, I still can't look at socks the same way, and I still think that stain's still there on the floor and sock just to haunt me!" she said. "Besides, I have a horrible voice; my dad would laugh at me." She said feeling squeamish at the thought of her getting on a stage again. "Nope, never, 100% no!" she said crossing her flippers stubbornly and looking away from him.

"What? Come on! Who laughs at you?" Marshal asked running up to her.

Athena tapped her beak to think. "Oh, I don't know…YOU!" she hollered out making Marshal jump back a bit at her outburst. "The last thing I need is _another _thing to be reminded I suck at."

"Come on Athena, I just make fun of you for my enjoyment. It's not personal, in fact, I'm an idiot! Why do you care?" he asked flushing more and more dignity down the toilet. He wondered if it would overflow if she didn't agree soon. He sighed when she still ignored him. "Okay, the truth is," he started. _Here comes the overflow._ He thought to himself. "I forgot your dad's birthday, so I wanted for you to sing and I'll do something, but I'm not sure yet. My brain doesn't give me an idea until its spur of the moment usually." He said remembering the time where he thought of that fire crackers in the toilet thing, just when he was about to give up on his routinely Wednesday prank.

Athena sighed. "Marshal, I don't think you have a brain, cause you forgot the most obvious birthday of them all!" she said. "And, no, I will not, never, ever ,ever, ever, sing. Nope, no begging, I will NOT!" she hollered out as she waddled back to her experiment.

Marshal sighed. "Fine, Athena, you win tonight, but you're gonna sing. You will!" he hollered out before dashing out the door running past Skipper and his team, who were just returning from their annual afternoon recon mission. "YOU WILLLLLL!" he hollered out once more before making his way out the fishbowl entrance and going over to Eggy's place where Peanut and Eggy would be waiting for him to see if asking worked.

"Maybe I should check up on him, but then again, it sounds like this is gonna be a great 'I told you so' lesson." Skipper said as Marshal's little down feathered butt popped above their ladder and out of their sight.

The others shrugged and headed back home, but then Kowalski's eyes widened. "Wait!" Kowalski said stopping them from entering the H.Q.'s main room "They may be working on my hatchday present!" he said with his flippers in front of the other's chests.

"Hatchday?" Private repeated.

"Well, penguins aren't born!" Kowalski said with a laugh.

Skipper sighed as Kowalski's laugh continued. "Solider, I think you're the only man I know who actually cares how he got into the world." He said, but he decided to go along with Kowalski anyways. "Okaay! Here comes the future birth-I mean hatchday boy!" Skipper said with a small chuckle and receiving a glare from Kowalski, "What?" he asked.

Kowalski rolled his eyes. "Let's just go in before you actually think of some other nicknames." He said before the adult penguins came into the H.Q.

Athena looked up at her dad and smiled. "Hey dad." She greeted. She ran up and hugged him. "Just working on my homework." She said. She looked down and felt her stomach twist. "So, did Marshal say anything to you about anything?" she asked shuffling her little orange foot on the concrete.

"No, why is he hiding something?" Skipper asked cocking a brow at her.

"NO!" Athena hollered out before they tried to get Marshal to talk, but she blushed when everyone looked at her strangely. "Right…so he didn't say anything! Great!" she said letting a small sigh in relief escaper her.

The elite force got a thirst from their mission, so they settled down for a drink, and Elli took this as an opportunity to talk to Athena. "Athena?" she said getting her attention. Athena smiled and waddled over to her glad it wasn't Marshal. "I heard what Marshal was talking about as I hid, and well, I think you should do it."

**At the lemur habitat. . . . . . . . **

Maurisa walked home with Prince J.J. and Prince J.J. looked down at her when they were almost there to ask her if she would make her a smoothie later, but then he noticed a tense feeling around her. "Why are you sad Maurisa?" he asked, but Maurisa didn't look sad, but he just knew it. (Could this be a new hidden talent?)

Maurisa sighed. "Well, I think Athena's mad at me cause I kinda out smarted her." She said looking down, but looked back up a little angry when Prince J.J. burst into laughter. "What is it?" she said in a sassy tone that she usually used when the royal lemurs got on her nerves.

Prince J.J. wiped a tear away. "Pft! You, outsmart Athena?" he said as his face got redder from laughter and Maurisa's redder from anger. "Don't be ridiculous! My dad couldn't outsmart Athena, and he's the best of the best." He said in a slight bragging tone.

"Pft! I could outsmart you dad." Maurisa said with a smirk, but then she covered her mouth with her yellow eyes wide, but it was too late, Prince J.J. shot her a look that said 'what did you just say?', but in more of a shocked tone than a warning one she'd get from her dad if she said that in front of him. "Umm…I mean your dad could outsmart _me._" She said flushing her fair share of dignity down the toilet. She didn't even want to know how long her banishment would be if she said something like that to King Julien's face!

Prince J.J. smiled. "Oh good, though I wouldn't squeal on you, you are a friend, and also my servant." He said placing his arm on the lemur's shoulder. "Just give me a mango smoothie and we'll call it even, kay?" he said making the small lemur smile, mostly at how stupid he was, but she nodded.

They then hopped over the ledge of the lemur habitat, and made their way in. "Okay, one mango smoothie, then I better go by and see Athena. No way, I'm gonna be a snob and steal her genius." She said shaking her head at the thought. She looked over to King Julien. "But it seems that the snobs get the servants." She mumbled before going to help her dad.

Prince J.J. smiled happy to be home, but he still didn't get it. How could he just tell Maurisa was sad? I mean, she wasn't frowning, he just…felt it like a tense wall that stood before him and his servant. He shrugged it off, but he let his big mouth blurt it out. "Bored dad?" he asked, but he covered his muzzle and squeezed it tight until he could taste the fur from his paw in his mouth. "I mean," he started his small Madagascar voice a bit squeaky realizing he just blurted out again.

King Julien jumped down with his paws on his sides. "How did you know that? I always don't act bored until the sky spirits tell me to." He said pointing to the sky. He looked up at the sky and didn't see any bored clouds. "Did the sky spirits talk to you without my say so?" he asked walking over to him with his paws on his sides now. "Hmm?" he said giving him a warning look.

Prince J.J. smiled nervously. "Um…" he said looking for a way out of this one. "Look! It's your boom box!" he shouted and ran as King Julien turned around.

"Oh, hello my boomy box." He said with a wave at the object. He turned back around to talk to his son some more, but he was gone. "Oh, he must be wanting to play hide and go seeking!" he said thinking he figured it out. "Remember my number one rule, _I _must win!" he shouted before counting from Juli-one to me-leven. He looked up. "I will find you, it's the law!" he said before looking for his son.

The hours dragged by like years as the sun made its way to the top of the city's towers. Maurisa glanced at the penguin's habitat with a nervous expression on her face. "Please, don't be mad at me." She whispered before heading back to work. She really did cherish her friendships seriously. Finaly, King Julien said it was party time, and Maurisa snuck out of the lemur habitat to go to the penguins. She smiled to herself thinking that everything would be fine and dandy again between her and Athena, but she stopped when she heard the familiar voices of Marshal, Peanut, and Eggy, in their 'not not so secret' abandoned hot dog car clubhouse. "Well, Athena doesn't like to be pranked on, so maybe I'll listen in a little bit." She said before sticking her opened up lemur ear to the side of the cart. A little while after her ear adjusted to the chill of the metal, she could hear the boy's voices.

"She's just not gonna do it guys!" Marshal's voice mumbled in her ear. "I think we should just think of something else before we spend all our time on this."

"Dude, we can do this!" Eggy voice came up next.

"Yeah, I mean Athena's got an amazing voice, we can't just let her hide it!" Peanut came after that.

After that Maurisa barged in through the bottom of the hot dog cart. "If it helps Athena out, I'm in."

**Ah! OMG, Maurisa's in! Could this help? Find out soon! :D**

**Now everyone wants Athena to sing! Will she do it?!?!?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey again! I just want you to know, the beginning takes place after Elli said Athena should sing on her dad's birthday.**

**Now on with the story….**

"W-what?" Athena stammered taken back. _Not Elli too! This is just great; I just had to sing Buttons that lullaby didn't I? _She screamed in her head. She shook her head again. "No, how many times do I have to say it?" she said before walking off.

Elli followed her. "Athena, please" she started.

"NO! Marshal's probably only doing this to get me up on stage and barf my guts out again, don't give into it Elli. It's just another prank." She said facing her now. She put her flippers on her shoulders with a pleading look on her face.

"Or" Elli started. "You have a beautiful voice and Marshal's just using you to get Uncle Kowalski a birthday present." She said with a chuckle. "Hiding under the table put me in a very good hearing range of you two."

Athena looked down and sighed defeated. "Fine, since it was, surprisingly, believe Marshal Day, I'm just gonna work on my dad's present."

Elli sighed. She was going to have to work _really _hard to get her to at least agree to sing. Whether she kept the promise or not, was out of her mind entirely. She waddled back a little sadly and sat down on the couch next to her dad. "Hey dad" she mumbled.

Private looked down to see if that little to no cheery voice was his daughter's. "Elli? What's wrong?" he asked touching her shoulder.

Elli opened her beak to answer, but then four animals dropped from the fishbowl entrance, a duckling, an otter pup, a lemur, and a penguin. "Marshal?" Elli asked cocking her head to the side confused. "What are Eggy, Peanut, and Maurisa doing here?" she asked mostly meaning Maurisa. Eggy and Peanut came over all the time, but Maurisa usually visited when King Julien barged in.

Marshal mumbled and crossed his flippers. He and his friends tried to deny the plan of Athena's singing, but Maurisa had to be listening to a hot dog cart that moment. "Let's just say Maurisa knows about Athena." He said under his breath not looking any happier that Peanut and Eggy did.

Elli smiled and waddled over to them. "Really, that's great! I haven't been able to get her to even say she has a good voice. She thinks you're trying to get her on stage and embarrass herself like when she threw up on that sock puppet when we were little." She explained.

Maurisa rolled her eyes. "Great job Marshal, if you didn't pull so much pranks, we could be going over with soundtrack to get her to sing to!" she said whacking him over the head.

"Ow!" Marshal said rubbing his stinging head. "Jeez, no wonder Athena hates you, cause I'm not liking you too much at the moment!" he snapped at her.

Maurisa rolled her eyes. She didn't really care what Marshal thought of her, but she _did _care what Athena thought of her right now. "Too bad she can't hear her for herself. I mean, I haven't heard her, but I bet she's good if everyone's trying to get her to perform for her dad on his birthday." She said.

Marshal slapped himself in the head and he waddled over to where he kept the tape recorder. "Interesting thing," He said with a nervous laugh. The other kids followed him out into the hallway where the adults couldn't hear. "This might be what we need." He whispered.

Maurisa sighed and slapped her head too. "Okay, now we can _prove _it to her, though it took the genius over there twenty minutes to figure it out!" she said yanking the recorder out of his flippers. She then pressed the button and held the tape recorder up to her ears and her eyes widened at how good her voice sounded. "Oh. My. Gosh." She said separately as if she were listening to the angels sing from that box. "Why does Athena think she stinks at singing? Oh my gosh, she's awesome!" she said listening to it all over again.

"I know! She's amazing!" Elli said listening to the tape as well.

Just then Marlene and Lilly came in.

"Mom?" Peanut said.

"Lilly?" Eggy said.

"What are you doing here?" Eggy and Peanut said at the same time.

Marlene chuckled. "Hey, uh…you see, the lemur's cake didn't go so well, so now _me and you_ are in charge of the cake." She said pointing to Peanut, who had a questioning look on his face. "You see, the lemur's made a King Julien themed cake, and when I tried to make it Kowalski themed, they banned me from their kingdom." Marlene explained.

Maurisa rolled her eyes. "I'll talk him out of it Ms. Marlene."

"And mom says it's time for dinner." Lilly said.

"Aw! Can't I stay here for five more minutes?" Eggy asked not wanting to leave.

Peanut was about to say the same thing, but Marlene grabbed his arm and pulled him back home before he could ask. "Sorry sweetey, but I'll just need your help with handing me stuff for the cake. I want to get it done, that way it doesn't look like I _forgot _Kowalski's birthday. That would just be embarrassing!" she said, but she didn't notice Marshal's blush as she walked up the ladder and out the fishbowl entrance with Peanut.

Lilly faced Eggy. "I'd do the same thing, but I'm not that strong."

Eggy rolled his eyes. "Come on sis, a little while longer? We just found out an interesting fact about-oof!" he shouted when Elli elbowed him. "Why? I'm serious, why the heck do I get the punching bag treatment man!" he said glaring at Elli.

"Sorry Eggy," Elli apologized. "But it's a secret." She said.

"What's a secret? I can keep a secret. I love secrets!" Lilly said getting excited. "Secret secrets are no fun, unless they're shared with everyone!"

"Okay one, that was a cruddy rhyme," Peanut said with a smirk and making Lilly glare at him. "And two, then it's not a secret anymore, duh!" he said making a stupid look on his face.

Lilly jabbed him in the arm. "If you don't tell me then I'm gonna tell mom you put that hot sauce in our pond." She said smiling at Eggy already knowing she won.

Eggy gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"I would!"

"You don't have the nerve!" Eggy said trying to intimidate her.

Lilly smiled knowing that that wouldn't work. "I watched a fashion show that had brown and white outfits that so didn't clash together, I've got nothing but nerve." She said smiling.

"Tattletale!" Eggy shouted.

"Egg head!" Lilly said making fun of his name.

"Poo poo face!"

"Pond wetter!"

Everyone laughed. "You went in the water one time?" Marshal asked, looking at his friend.

Eggy blushed. "Okay, once, my mom was showing us how to swim, and it was warm, and I just couldn't help it! I tried to make my way out in time, but it was too late. That was the only time I swear! I didn't even know anyone noticed." he said defending himself, but that only made it worse, and everyone's laughter louder.

Lilly laughed. "I didn't know that! I was just adding a name!" she said.

Eggy blushed again. "Sisters, I must've won the lottery." He said sarcastically under his breath.

Marshal wiped a tear from his eye. "Okay then, why don't you go home?" he asked pushing the ducklings to the door, but Lilly wanted to stay and see what this big secret was about.

"Come on tell me!" Lilly begged.

Marshal rolled his eyes. "Fine, but you can't tell anyone, especially not my Uncle Kowalski about this." He said before pressing the button on the tape recorder and letting Athena's angelic voice escape it once more.

Lilly's eye widened as the sound reached her ears. "Oh my gosh! She's, like, so awesome! She could be the next big thing, and I could design her outfits when she went on stage! That would be awesome! Lilly's Fashions." She said with a dreamy sigh at the thought with her little yellow wings pressed together. She faced the other kids again. "So when can we hear this girl sing?" she asked.

"Once she agrees to it, then maybe on Mr. Kowalski's birthday." Maurisa answered.

Lilly frowned. "What do you mean?" the little duckling asked.

Eggy told her about Athena's stage fright.

"Oh, then I might not want to design her outfits incase she spews on them, but why does she think she stinks? I mean, did she hear that?" she asked pointing to the tape recorder. "If I sounded like that, I'd jump on stage right now!" she said smiling at the thought.

All eyes fell on Marshal. "Because Athena can't trust Marshal enough to think that he's being serious." Maurisa said.

Lilly looked at Marshal and then at her brother. "Eggy, I always knew that your pranking with your friends would get out of hand one of these days." She said glaring at him. "Now it's affecting my future career as the first duck to design model's dresses!" she whined, though that wouldn't have been possible anyways.

Eggy sighed. "Yeah, I really won the lottery with a sister like Lilly." He said sarcastically.

**At Marlene's. . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Marlene handed Peanut the cook book. "Okay Peanut, I want you to read to me what I should do for this cake." She instructed before looking down at some of the baking tools she set out in her cave. "Okay, what first?"

Peanut looked at the cook book. "Okay pour the flour and some water in the bowl." He said actually getting interested in the book. "You know, it would taste better if this had milk, do that instead." He said not looking up from it. His blue eyes were practically glued to the page. "I mean water, that's like a plain tasting liquid, milk's creamier."

Marlene got confused. "Maybe we should follow the book." She said.

"Come on mom, this cook book had like a dozen mistakes in it. I'll read it and saw what I think would go best." Peanut said turning the page of the book.

Marlene starred at him. "Okay then, but you know I've made a cake before right?" she asked.

Peanut chuckled. "You mean that buggy surprise you made King Julien on his birthday or something like that? I think you _need _my help with this one mom, if you call that a cake that you're supposed to, you know, eat." He said looking up at his mom for a second to see her small glare.

"Lemurs love bugs!" she defended herself crossing her arms.

Peanut laughed and looked in his mom's cookbook again. "Yeah, but when you're given the option of something…better, then you kiss the bugs goodbye."

Marlene sighed. "Okay my little fancy french chef, you make the cake." She said handing him the spoon. She was joking at first, but of course, Peanut took it seriously and began to bake his cake.

"Thanks mom, and don't worry, I'll say you made it in front of Skipper." He said making Marlene blush and growl at the same time. The truth is that he didn't want anyone to know about this. I mean, doesn't that sound cheesy to ask your friends if they want some cookies that you made earlier? "Okay, a small bit of this, a sprinkle of that, and then, you got to pour a cup of _milk _in the bowl." He said doing the actions as he said them. He poured the ingredients into the red bowl and stirred them around humming happy birthday.

A few hours later, Peanut shook his mom awake. "Hey mom, come look." He whispered, but Marlene let out a chainsaw snore. "MOM!" the little otter pup called out making Marlene jump up frightened. "I made the cake, and it's great! Now I need your help to take it to the fridge." He said taking his moms arm and drag her over to where the most yummy looking cake sat. It was a chocolate cake that looked moist, with a few swirls of strawberry icing at the top along with a big, red, and extremely juicy cherry right in the middle of the circle shaped dessert.

Marlene's mouth dropped open, and she even drooled a bit. That cake looked delicious! "Okay then." She said sill a little shocked, before helping Peanut take it over to where they kept their refrigerator that Kowalski helped them set up a few months earlier. "Well Peanut, I think Kowalski's gonna have the best birthday ever with this thing!" she said with a laugh.

Peanut blushed. "I made two, just to take a taste test."

**Ooh, Peanut's a chef and now Lilly knows! What's Athena going to do about this?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter four! Hooray! :D**

**Haley and Ariel are in this chapter and so are two very annoying squirrels!**

Haley was in the middle of a great catnap. The cool autumn air felt perfect on her, but she still cuddled into her fiery red and orange fur more to warm up even more. She could just smell the October air, _the sweet smell of autumn_ her mom called it, cool breezes, and the sounds of leaves rustling in the wind, and…yelling 'Haley look out'? She popped her head up confused, but it was too late, by the time her head was up, there was a soaking wet beach ball flying towards her. "Oh my…" she didn't get a chance to finish.

Ariel swam around the dolphin habitat a little nervously, receiving a small look from her mom every now and then for whacking the ball too hard, again. "What can I say mom? I'm stronger than I look." She said with a small laugh, but the glare still continued. The little dolphin looked out and smiled when a, not so happy, Haley came up to her. "Haley! I'm sooo sorry! Uh, where's my ball?" she asked, noticing her favorite beach ball wasn't there.

Haley glared at Ariel with her two light brown eyes, which were soaking wet from that beach ball along with the rest of her head. She did give a small smile when she popped her paw back up, revealing a deflated beach ball from her claws getting into it. "Here's your beach ball back." She said, tossing the ball, or what used to be a ball, back in the water. The girls watched it sink to the ground, and Ariel wasn't smiling.

"Wow, thanks." The dolphin muttered under her breath sarcastically. She looked up and saw her mom smiling like Haley. "Wha-mom!?" Ariel hollered at Doris, who let out a laugh.

"Sorry sweetie, but you _did _get a cat soaking wet. They don't like that you know." Doris replied, but Ariel just snickered.

"Save your smarty pants for Mr. Kowalski." Ariel said.

Haley smiled, and decided to leave as the two dolphins started to have a classic mom and daughter fight. She looked up from licking her soaking wet legs, to see Marshal, Maurisa, Eggy, Lilly, and Elli walking together talking about something, but she was too far away to hear them. "Hey Elli!" the cat called out to her friend. She leapt up to the group, landing perfectly on her paws. "What cha doing?" she asked.

Marshal groaned that _another _person was onto them. "No, let's just put it in the newspaper! That'll be so much easier!" he hollered out.

Haley cocked her head to the side confused. "Uh…what?" she asked.

Elli smiled. "You know how it's my Uncle Kowalski's birthday next week?" she asked.

Haley laughed. "Who doesn't? My mom said that he was posting it in the newspaper!"

Marshal blushed in both embarrassment and anger that it seemed so easy to remember and he didn't. "IT COULD'VE BEEN GAS!!!!!!!" he hollered, defending himself. (A/N-if you're confused, this is when Peanut said that Kowalski came in the meeting to tell everyone with a big smile on his face in the first chapter.)

Everyone stared at him strangely. "You had to be there." Eggy said.

"Anyways…" Elli said, still trying to figure out what he meant. "We've just realized that Athena's an amazing singer!" her British accent squeaked in excitement. "So we're trying to get her to sing for her dad's birthday! She'd be really good, but she's afraid to get on stage, so we're not sure what to do." She said.

Haley gasped. "Why didn't you tell me!? I'm a great secret keeper!"

"Really?" Lilly asked.

Elli giggled as if she remembered something and put her little flippers up to her beak to calm it down, but she couldn't. "I guess it's not that bad for you all to know, but Haley's the best actress on earth! She can keep any secret, promise, and even lie to keep it up. She's amazing! You should've seen her that one time, Haley, Nellie, and I were at the park, and we were late getting home, but she told her mum an incredible story of us running into animal control without even flinching! I believed her a little myself." She said, smiling at the memory. "It was a lucky break she told it to my dad, and Nellie's mum, I might've gotten into big trouble!"

Haley smiled and rubbed her wet paw against her chest in a sort of 'trying to be modest' manner. "I guess it's my hidden talent. I want to be an actress or something like that one day. Besides, it comes in handy. One time I got out of trouble, and then when Lilly showed me her outfit, I said I loved it and didn't hurt her feelings!"

"Uh...Lilly's right here!" Lilly said a little offended.

Haley smiled however. "See, I did love it, I was acting…or was I?"

Marshal rolled his eyes. "Yeah, fashion's just so gonna help us right now!" he said sarcastically, but Lilly ignored him.

"Okay, if you were acting, what was wrong with it!?" Lilly yelled a little hurt.

Haley looked down and fiddled her paws together nervously, trying to think of a good way to say this. "Well…the pattern looked a lot like my fur, which scares me." Haley answered.

"Ugh! Well, I'd thank me if I designed an outfit based on my outer look." Lilly said.

"What? Okay, okay, if duckling feathered skirts became popular, they wouldn't send you to the studio for designing, Lilly, trust me, and my mom said it's almost happened to her." The wild cat said. She shuddered at the thought, and the end of her red fur on her neck stuck up while she shivered. "On to happier thoughts please, like maybe how we can convince Athena to sing." She said, getting interested in that again.

Maurisa sighed both tired and annoyed about how it was going to be that hard. They explained the stage fright thing. "That girl has stage fright so bad, that it aint right. You say she's going on stage, and she'd throw up like Buttons and Mr. Rico, except, it wouldn't be something you'd want to put your hands on." She said with a shudder at the thought. "Not that you'd want to put your hands on what they hack up anyways."

Marshal nodded in agreement. "Yep, I bet Mr. Sock puppet didn't enjoy his last show."

Elli sighed and looked down sadly. "Oh, I loved that little sock. How sad his last show left him…covered in re-re-chewed fish." She said with a disgusted shudder at the though.

Haley got a disgusted look on her face. "Ew"

Maurisa looked down and sighed, but then she looked back up with her eyes a little widened. "What if we can't get her to si-"

"WE'RE GONNA!" Marshal hollered before Maurisa could even finish her sentence. Everyone stared at him strangely; they saw the angriest penguin ever. He huffed and stormed off to cool off like his dad told him to do so he doesn't get into a fight, sadly, he sometimes forgot that. He just remembered when he saw a frightened Elli; he couldn't go violent in front of her. "I'll be back in a while." He grumbled under his breath, leaving a group of worried kids behind him.

There was an awkward silence among the kids, until Maurisa spoke up. "Uh, Haley, why are you all wet?" she asked, now noticing how the cat was dripping wet.

Haley shuddered at the memory. "I don't want to talk about it."

**A few minutes later. . . . . . . . **

Marshal grumbled and waddled from side to side. "Stupid Athena, she can't sing for once in her stupid life?" he grumbled shaking his head from side to side. He squeezed his flippers in anger behind his back, just then he heard…music, like a guitar strumming. He looked up, and saw that it was coming from the other side of the wall on the outside. "Huh?" he said confused. He climbed up the wall, and saw two squirrels strumming on mini guitars.

"Come on Buck, just a few more minutes of practice." Jack said to his brother. He looked up to the grey furred squirrel with pleading brown eyes. "I wanna write another song for her." He said, thinking of Elli. "I mean, how long has it been since we last saw them?" he asked cocking a brow. He tapped his chin, thinking. "Like, two weeks."

Buck shrugged. "I don't know, I'm a little tired of getting rejected by them though." He said with a small grumble in his voice. He looked up from his guitar and saw a penguin. "Athena?" he asked when the first thing that came to his mind was his crush. Then he noticed it wasn't her. "Jack, look behind you!" he yelled in a whisper.

Jack's eyes widened. "It's a bug isn't it? Get it off bro!" he said scratching his back.

Buck rolled his blue eyes. "Idiot!" he mumbled. He grabbed his freaked out brother's head and spun it around to see Marshal who was now smiling, looking at their guitars.

Marshal looked to see if anyone was following him in the zoo, before jumping outside and landing on the grass softly. "Hello, squirrels." Marshal said with a small trouble grin forming on his beak. "Nice guitars are you good?" he asked.

"Pft! Are we good?" Jack said, he stomped his foot on the end of the guitar, making it pop up and land in his paws perfectly. When he had it, he strummed a romantic Spanish themed tune. "In other words, we rock." He said in a gloating tone.

"Why?" The oldest of the squirrels, but only by a few seconds, asked.

"Okay, there's this girl I know, Athena." Marshal started.

That was all Buck needed to hear. "I'm in!" he shouted with a smile.

Jack smiled, knowing Elli would come along somewhere too. "Me too dude!" he shouted out. He jumped up to Marshal, making the penguin step back a little frightened, but Jack held out his paw. "Name's Jack, and that's my twin brother Buck." He said pointing behind him. "So what are you planning?" he asked not cocking a brow.

Marshal smirked. "Jack, I'm Marshal, and one of the first things you need to know about me, is that it's better not to know." He said before shaking his paw.

**A few hours later. . . . . . . . . . **

Athena sat down grumbling, and Buttons tried to ask her what was wrong, but Athena just kept saying to leave her be. "I'm sorry Buttons, but I just don't feel like talking about it." She said, gently shoving him away. Athena felt sick to her stomach, she wasn't surprised though, and it was because she was expected to sing in front of…others!

Buttons sighed and waddled out to where the older penguins were. "Well?" Kowalski asked feeling a little worried for his daughter, she just seemed to mope around for the past few hours, and he was starting to worry along with the others. He sighed when Buttons shrugged. "Well, this is the worst thing to happen before my hatchday."

"Birthday!" the other penguins corrected.

"Whatever!" Kowalski hollered back.

Just then, a strangely giddy Marshal jumped from the top of the H.Q. to the floor. "Hello wonderful people, what a lovely day this is!" he said with a spring in his step, that got Skipper's attention right away. Marshal, of all people, didn't act like that unless he was VERY happy.

"What's with the little dancing Marshal?" Skipper asked.

Marshal smiled. "I've just got a little something ready for a certain someone's birthday." He said, smiling at Kowalski, and Kowalski wasn't sure to smile and feel excited or be afraid. Anything Marshal pulled up was tricky or ended up in an embarrassing accident.

He leaned over to Private. "Is Doris coming?" he frowned when Private nodded. "Okay, Private, I want you and Rico to watch my back during the party incase Marshal comes up with a few of his pranks." He whispered, making Private and Rico nod and pat his back, showing they were there for him. Kowalski smiled thanks to them.

Marshal ran to tell Athena the news, but he stopped. He heard…singing?

"_Hurry up and wait_

_So close, but so far away_

_Everything that you've always dreamed of_

_Close enough for you to taste_

_But you just can't touch" _She sang each note out perfectly, making Marshal smiled and even nod his head to the music, but then she stopped and so did Marshal. "I'm not a good singer." She mumbled to herself, crossing her flippers across her chest. She didn't think she was, and that wasn't going to change, or would it?

"Of course you are." Marshal said, making Athena turn around embarrassed.

"What? I wasn't singing, I was just talking in a different manner!" Athena tried to explain herself, but Marshal wasn't buying it. "I-I-okay, fine I was singing, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna sing in front of," she shuddered. "the public."

Marshal rolled his eyes. "Well aren't you a brave little solider?" He said sarcastically, making Athena snicker at him. He smiled and chuckled. "But guess what? I've got the perfect plan, and I got a little musical entertainment for the performance."

Athena sighed. "You're wasting your time, cause I'm _not _going to do it, but I guess I better know to go and apologize later for your actions, again."

Marshal opened his beak to answer, but before he could, Elli came in. "Marshal, Marshal! What's wrong, why'd you storm off like that?" Elli asked in a worried tone as she came to him. Her soft brown eyes filled with worry, made Marshal blush as they peered into his, and it got worse as Elli placed her flipper on his shoulder.

"It's nothing Elli." He muttered, trying to calm the blush down, it mostly went away when Elli let go of him. When it was all the way down, he smiled and rubbed his flippers together. "Anyways, I've got the perfect idea, I met these two squirrels earlier, who are like, awesome at playing the guitar and writing songs." He said. He looked at the girls strangely as their eyes widened.

"W-what color was their fur?" Elli stammered, with her eyes still wide.

Marshal cocked his brow at her. "One had brown fur and the other had grey." He looked towards the two girls. "Why?"

Athena and Elli looked at each other silently. "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" their screams, that broke the silence, echoed the H.Q., making the older penguins come up to them in an instant.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here?" Skipper asked. He lowered his defensive stance, along with his team behind him. He looked over and saw a very confused Marshal, in front of a really freaked out Athena and Elli, they looked like they just saw a ghost. "Marshal, what now?" Skipper asked with a sigh.

"Dad, I have no idea." Marshal said. He looked over to the two girls and waddled over to them. "What's wrong, are you scared of squirrels or something?" he asked.

"KINDA!" The girls answered at the same time, now holding each other's flippers. Then, they looked murderous as they glared at Marshal, making the poor guy back away a little frightened. Marshal didn't know the he had just said Jack and Buck should be around them for who knows how long, to write a birthday song, that Athena didn't even want to do in the first place, but he also didn't know about the squirrels' major crushes on them either. Why the girls didn't tell anyone, he didn't not that either.

**Buck and Jack are back! (lol, that rhymes! XD) I just read that their dad, Fred the Squirrel, will go on a date with Marlene in an episode coming out in December, so that was a shocker, but whatever.**

**As you see, Haley is an actress and Ariel is athletic, a few more talents down! **

**And the beginning of the song Athena was singing is a song by Jordan Sparks called "One Step at a Time." A pretty song that I do not own, and if you want to hear what Athena would sound like if she sung it, type in "One step at a time kid version" in Youtube**

**And also, the joke where Haley says she was acting…or was she? I got from Hannah Montana.**

**I think that's all, so review if you can! **

**Bye!!!!!!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again! If you love Marshal and don't want to see Athena go ballistic on him, then this might not be your favorite chapter, but if you don't mind, then enjoy! XD**

It was an awkward and silent dinner that night. Athena and Elli kept glaring at Marshal every time he even came into their view. Marshal expected a glare from Athena, but Elli? He decided to ask the girls after dinner, but he didn't have to. "What's this about?" Skipper asked with a curious tone in his voice and look on his face, as he looked at the two girls.

Athena and Elli's eyes widen, and they looked at each other, hoping one of them would want to explain it. Neither of them did. "Nothing!" the girls said at the same time before focusing on their dinner again. The glares stopped, but it still stayed quiet, very, very quiet.

After dinner, Athena and Elli marched up to Marshal, and they didn't look friendly. Marshal smiled nervously, not knowing whether to run or stay in his place so Athena and Elli could explain why they were upset earlier. "Uh, at least it wasn't a crazy dinner tonight." He said in a joking manner, but Elli and Athena stayed quiet, that's when he knew whatever he did was serious. "Okay, what did I do?" Marshal asked, wanting to get to the point.

Athena sighed. "Buck and Jack are two squirrels we do _not _enjoy being around." She said, trying to keep the embarrassing parts out of her explanation, like the singing, flirting, and defiantly the dancing. "So, you're gonna have to cancel whatever you're up too!" she said, behind her, Elli nodded in agreement.

Marshal scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, not possible, we kinda already have plans." He said.

Elli sighed. "Why'd you have to tell them too?"

Athena nodded, but then she stopped. "Whoa whoa, hold up, _too_!?!" she said, now feeling ready to strangle Marshal.

Marshal shot Elli a glare, and Elli shrugged nervously. He looked back up and saw the angriest Athena he had ever seen. Even after the time he pulled the toilet bowl prank on her, and she was restrained by Rico because he did that. "Okay, Athena, I see you're upset now, but I didn't tell than many people." He said as he backed away from her. He let out a small yelp as Athena grabbed him by the shoulders and brought his face up to hers, her glare did feel like it was drilling holes into him.

"How…many…people…know?" Athena asked putting more anger in each word and pulling Marshal closer to look into her angry eyes, showing she wanted the truth.

Marshal gulped and told her the number.

**A few minutes later. . . . . . . . . . **

Marshal limped over to Peanut's habitat as fast as he could for protection and was panting as he did, and what a sad looking sight he was. Athena was MAD when she realized that many people knew, and he was pretty lucky Elli stopped her from figuring out which chemical on her dad's chemistry set would give him a second head, or just blow his single head off completely.

Peanut looked up from the cake he was eating and nearly spat his food out as what his friend looked like, but the banana nut cream was just too good, so he let it stay in. He yelped and looked down at all the cooking tools, there were too much to hide before Marshal showed up, even if he was limping. He ran outside the cave and stopped him from coming in and seeing the stuff. "Hey dude, uh, let's just stay out here!" he suggested.

"MARSHAL!" Athena's voice was heard all the way from the penguins' habitat to the otter one.

Marshal looked back and saw Elli struggling to keep Athena down on the top of the H.Q. now, but Athena was making her way over to Marshal for sure."Funny, now let me in before Athena takes whatever she can get her flippers on, and bangs me with it repeatedly till I'm as flat as a pancake, a quivering little pancake!" he said, but whenever he tried to make his way in, Peanut would stop him. "Peanut, please, this is serious!"

Athena was making her way over the gate of the penguin habitat.

Peanut sighed and finally let him in. He closed his eyes waiting for Marshal's teasing to begin, but it didn't. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a clear table. Did he go crazy? There was just a pile of stuff on there a few moments earlier! He looked around confused, but then he smiled when he saw his mom placing a spoon in a little compartment they had. He walked past Marshal, who was hiding behind his bed, and went to Marlene. "Mom, how'd you clean all this up so fast?" he whispered, so Marshal didn't hear.

Marlene smiled. "Peanut, being your mom has taught me a few things. Like when it comes to you room, or your personal trashcan, I've learned to clean the messiest of messes on earth." She answered, playfully ruffling the fur on his head.

Peanut smiled and laughed, but he frowned when his mom said something again.

"You're gonna have to tell your friends about your talent all on your own." She said patting his little head and smoothing out his fur.

Peanut frowned. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen." He then walked away from her, while behind him Marlene was shaking her head and rolling her eyes, thinking that it's a shame that Peanut would hide such a wonderful talent.

Marshal shook under Peanut's bed. His heart felt like it skipped a beat when he felt someone touch his back, but he calmed down when he realized it was just Peanut. "Jeez dude, what the heck happened to you?" the otter pup asked.

"Athena knows how many people know about her…talent." The little penguin answered.

"Well, you're dead." Peanut said.

"PEANUT!" Marshal and Marlene called out.

Marlene went to Peanut's bed and knelt down to Marshal. "Marshal, don't worry, I'll get Athena to calm down, but you have to apologize for whatever you did for making her mad." She said as she smoothed out the little down feathers on his back, calming him down. "Besides, she can't be that mad at a prank can she?"

"MARSHAL!" Athena shouted, signaling her arrival and Marshal's doom. "Marshal, I'm gonna kick your little tail feathers so hard, you won't sit for the rest of your life and it won't be feathered anymore, do you hear me!?" she neared Marshal, but was stopped by Peanut and Marlene. "Let go of me!!!!" she kicked trying to get out of their grip, but she couldn't. She sighed, accepting defeat and sat down on the floor angrily.

"Okay, maybe she can be that mad." Marlene said. She put her free paw on her chin and tried to think of a solution for the problem. "Okay, let's talk this out." She faced Athena. "Okay, Athena, why do you want to kill Marshal?" she then got Athena to calm down and sit on Peanut's bed.

"Marshal's telling everyone my secret!" Athena said.

"Not true! I wasn't telling everyone, they were just figuring something was up!" Marshal said to defend himself.

"Marshal, you can talk when it's your turn." Marlene said.

"And, it's just not fair! I didn't even want _him _to know the secret, and now he's telling everyone! That's why I must kill him." Athena continued.

Marlene decided to step it. "Well, killing Marshal would be a waste, because if he already told everyone, then it's too late. I mean, he can't do any more damage than he's already done." She said, but then Athena snarled at Marshal and Peanut had to hold her down, again.

"Wow, thanks Ms. Marlene. Wait till it's _your _turn to talk next time, will ya?" Marshal said, jumping back and away from Athena. "Okay, Athena, I know this is bad, but think of it as a sign for you to-" he looked over to Marlene and decided that he shouldn't spill the beans again. "Use your talent." He finished.

Athena narrowed her eyes. "No chance, no how, so stop trying to get me to use my talent! You crossed the line when you spilled it to Buck and Jack, but then I realize Eggy, Peanut, Maurisa, Lilly, and Elli know too! I mean, why can you keep a secret so good when it comes to you and your pranks, but you can't when it involves me?"

"They figured it out!" Marshal, who was now behind Marlene, said. "Oh, and you forgot Haley." He then covered his beak. _IDIOT! _He shouted in his head. His eyes widened as Athena marched over to him, thankfully, Marlene grabbed her.

"Okay, I'm not cut out for this. I don't know what secret this is, and I'm sure you don't want me to know." She said, trying to calm Athena down, who was struggling to get out of her paws and attack Marshal. "I guess that means I'm gonna have to get your parents." She said.

"NO!" Marshal and Athena hollered out at the same time, stopping from struggling or hiding to look at her with wide eyes. Marshal didn't want his surprise to be that more noticeable than it already was to Kowalski and Athena didn't need ANOTHER person, especially her dad and uncles, to get into this too.

Marlene smiled, now noticing she was a step ahead. "I'd love to keep this between us, but if Marshal's life is at stake, then I may have to."

"She'll be good, I promise!" Marshal shouted, Athena nodded in agreement, but she didn't like that Marshal was saying how she would act. He would NEVER know how she would act, ever. "Just don't tell our dads!" Marshal pleaded.

Marlene smiled. She had won. "Okay then, but, you two have to make up and Marshal, no more secret telling." She said, giving the boy penguin a hard look. She nodded and walked off when Marshal and Athena shook each other's flippers in an agreement, but she didn't know that the fighting wasn't over just yet.

The two penguins left after that, and Athena was surprised that it wasn't that long before Marshal was at it again. Then again, Marlene didn't say not to ask and beg her to use her talent. "Athena, please!" Marshal begged, as he walked behind Athena. "I'm begging you!" he said. "I'm on my knees!" he said, now on his knees.

Athena looked down on him, and tried not to laugh.

"What?" Marshal said, he looked down and saw he was sitting on his knees in an ant hill! "Oh! Fire ants! Oh no, get away!" he said, trying to slap at the little bugs. "Okay, now they're on my flippers!" he shouted, after a few minutes though, he finally got the little bugs off. He ran to Athena and far away from the anthill. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, please!"

Athena sighed at his stupidity. "No, I will not, ever, ever, forever ever go with you to Buck and Jack's home or sing in front of others!" she yelled in a whisper, so if anyone was eavesdropping, they wouldn't hear. "There's a higher chance I'd sprout wings, grow gills, and fly away, and that's an impossibility unless I was mutated." She hissed.

Marshal sighed. "What's the deal? Are you against squirrels or something?"

"No, it's a…long story, but I wouldn't even say it if we had time. Just cancel it, and try to get my dad a present on your own." Athena answered. "I mean, what are you going to do? You can't force me to go." She said with a laugh at the thought.

Marshal smiled a trouble smile as a plan formed in his head. "Oh really?" he said in a tone, that made Athena tense up and gave her the feeling to sleep with her eyes open tonight.

**That night. . . . . . . . . **

Athena jumped up at every noise that night as she slept in the incubation chamber. She laid back down slowly, when she was, she closed her eyes again. _Just get some sleep, just get some sleep. _She thought to herself. Her eyes popped back open when she felt something tickle her foot. She popped up and saw Buttons. "Oh, uh…hey Buttons." She greeted.

Buttons made a lot of grunting sounds, and Athena realized this might become a game of charades. "Marshal!" Buttons said, making Athena's eye widen. The explosive penguin then put on a trouble grin and made tip-toed around the incubation chamber.

"Okay, Marshal was sneaking?" Athena asked. She didn't like where this was going.

Buttons nodded, and then made a quacking sound.

"Eggy." Athena said, still not liking this. "So that means Peanut too huh?"

Buttons nodded again. _She's good at this! _He thought to himself. Then he picked up one of the pillows and took off the pillow case, waving the sack in the air. He then placed the bag over his head. "You!" he said, pointing to himself.

Athena gulped. "Marshal snuck out to get Eggy and Peanut, so they could abduct me?" Buttons didn't have to answer, because just then, a sack went over her head. "Marshal, Peanut, Eggy, let me out of here!" she said, struggling to get out of here.

"Shh…" Eggy shushed her.

"Athena, this if for your own good." Marshal said.

Athena sighed. They were probably going to take her to Buck and Jack. "Well this stinks-whoa!" she said as she felt someone pull on the sack. She heard a growl, and recognized it as Buttons. "Buttons!" she exclaimed happily. He was coming for her rescue, her just thinking of that, made her blush.

"Buttons, it's okay dude, we're not gonna hurt her." Marshal said.

"No! Give back!" Buttons grunted, as he pulled on the sack.

Athena started to feel sick as the bag was tugged back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. "I'm gonna be sick!" she said as he head jerked from side to side, already holding her beak closed. She was in this sack, and even with the little breathing opening on the top, it wouldn't be large enough to catch her vomit. She probably would've been covered in puke, if Buttons hadn't lost his grip. He WAS three to one, so Athena didn't blame him.

Buttons fell over, and growled at Marshal and his friends, making them take off in a full blown sprint with Athena still in the sack. Buttons followed them. He popped his head above the H.Q. quietly, so he didn't wake up his dad and his uncles. He smiled a devious grin when he saw the three carrying Athena away into the night.

"I hope this is worth it dude, I'm tired. It's three in the morning." Eggy yawned.

Peanut yawned too. "Buck and Jack, I sure hope they're as good as you said they were."

"Pft! They better be! Do you know how hard it is to sneak past my mom? She's like radar; I had to take a single step every twenty seconds not to wake her!" Eggy said. "Then Lucky woke up, then Lilly did, and Nellie knows now, cause she said she'd tell mom we were sneaking out if we didn't let her go with us."

"WHAT!?" Athena shouted in the sack.

Peanut ignored her along with the other boys. "My mom's pretty easy to sneak past, her chainsaw snore fest every night helps. I could probably throw a party in there, and she wouldn't even know it!" he said with a laugh at the thought.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the park where a bunch of kids were. There was Maurisa, Lucky, Lilly, Nellie, Haley, and Elli there. Elli, Nellie, Lilly, and Haley were chatting, while Lucky was complaining he was the only guy there, and Maurisa was pacing the cold grass of the dark park nervously. Everyone looked up when the trouble making brothers and Athena showed up.

The three boys jumped down and released Athena by plopping the bag down and releasing the prisoner. "Are you insane?" Athena said when she was free. She shot a glare to the boys. "You KIDNAPPED me!?" she sighed when they nodded. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Thank goodness you're here Marshal!" Elli exclaimed, she wasn't so happy she'd be around the squirrels again, but she did want to help out with this birthday suprise. Just then a loud siren of police cars were heard, making Elli jump up frightened and yelp. She laughed nervously when everyone starred at her strangely. "I can never get used to that, besides, I've never been outside the zoo walls before, other than that time we had to come back home from the Hoboken Zoo."

"Why?" Lucky asked.

"Uh…well…there are these two annoying squirrels." Maurisa started.

"Aw, you know you like me!" an all too familiar voice came from behind them. The girls closed their eyes, knowing what was coming to them, and turned around and saw none other than Buck and Jack. The brothers were holding guitar cases and wearing big grins on their faces.

"It's been a while." Elli said after a little bit of silence, or silence with the sounds of New York in the background.

The boys, except Jack and Buck, looked at each other with questioning looks, but only shrugged. They only remember seeing them in that storage house when they were getting home. Even then, they just hung around the girls. Marshal looked up and figured out why.

Elli smiled nervously as Jack approached her with a flirty smile. "What is it?" she asked, but she had a pretty good feeling she knew what it was. He was going to ask to be her boyfriend again. Elli was flattered about this, she really was, but he was just so…not her type.

Jack smirked and placed his arm around her, tugging her closer and making Elli blush deeply, hoping no one was watching, but he took that as a good sign that she liked him, and was just too shy to admit it. "I want you to be my forever girl!"

**Oh boy! Do I smell jealousy? Probably from the next chapter, that's downright full of it! **

**I want to thank halfhuman123 for a little bit of the words, and review! Bye!!!**


	6. Chapter 6

Buttons was panting now as he ran after the boys who had abducted Athena. He lost them! They were fast, all it took was a turn around the dolphin habitat, and they were gone. He moaned as he starred down an empty zoo. "Where?" He asked, as he tapped under his beak suspiciously. Buttons smiled when he saw a figure's shadow moving away from the lemur habitat. That had to be them! Buttons ran after the figure. "Athena! Athena!" he called out with his raspy voice. He continued to make his way to the figure, but he frowned when it was only Prince J.J.

The lemur prince looked up and smiled at him. "Hello explosive happy penguin! Have you seen my loyal servant, Maurisa?" he sighed when Buttons shook his head no. "Ugh! Where could she be being? I have been looking for her everywhere! She isn't here, there, or anywhere!"

"Athena go bye-bye too!" Buttons said.

The lemur prince gasped. "Everyone's going missing! This is just like Father's Day! I bet it's that Dr. Butthole again!"

Buttons chuckled for the first time Athena was gone, but he didn't correct him.

"We must go and search for them! They could be in trouble, or worse, maybe they're being brainwashed! They'll never dance again; you need to have a full intact brain for dancing." He said with a smile. "I would know, I'm a great dancer, and my brain is all the way here!" he said tapping his skull. Buttons was surprised that there wasn't an echo sound.

"Yeah." Buttons grunted. He never liked dancing, probably never would, but he was pretty sure you didn't have to be smart to bust a move.

"Hey guys!" a voice said, making Buttons and J.J. scream and hug each other frightened. The voice laughed. "Calm down, it's only me, Ariel, your dolphin friend." Ariel said. She looked over and saw that J.J. and Buttons were in each other's arms. "Am I interrupting something here?" she asked with another laugh.

Buttons blushed and quickly removed himself from the lemur prince. "Where others?" Buttons managed to say to the dolphin.

Ariel motioned her head over to the wall. "Buck and Jack are there, so be warned." She said. Buttons didn't know what she meant by that, but he could've sworn he saw a look of disgust go over her face before she went back to sleep.

Buttons then put his attention on the group of faces on the other side of the wall. Athena was free, which made Buttons smile, but it went away quickly when a certain grey furred squirrel started smitten with her. He growled and jumped over the wall by the time he was leaning against the tree in front of her, trying to be cool. Keyword, TRYING.

"Are you from Tennessee? Cause you're the only ten I see!" Buck tried, but Athena only rolled her eyes at the lame line he gave. "Yeah, okay, okay, here's a better one. Are you from California? Cause I'll Calli for ya!"

Athena starred at him with a cocked brow. "You'll what?" she repeated, wondering if she should be flattered or slap him.

"You know, like I'd do anything for ya, but there's not state called anythingfornia." The squirrel answered.

"Then why would you…oh never mind!" Athena said, trying to ignore him. "I don't even want to be here, this was all Marshal's plan." She grumbled. Buck tried to comfort her, by placing his arm around her, but she glared at him. "There's a 99.9% chance that you'll never use that arm again unless you move it, right about, NOW!" She said. She usually didn't threaten him, but she was grumpy and tired, not a good combination. She was flattered at first, but after a while, it really starts to push your Buttons, which was the name of a penguin who was marching over there right now!

"Aw, you love me enough to give me that small chance!" Buck said, now tugging her closer.

"No, the 0.1% is that you'll only be able to move it a _little_ bit after months and months of healing." Athena said, making the squirrel yank his arm away quickly. Athena smiled. "Smart choice." She said. She looked up and her face dropped. "Buttons?" she said as the penguin neared her, and he didn't look too friendly.

"Buttons?" Buck repeated. "What kind of name is that? Let me guess, his best friends' names are Zipper and Pocket!" he snorted at his own joke.

"I would advise you not to do that." Athena said, now Buttons was standing in front of her, but he was glaring at Buck.

"Why not, he'll stop keeping shirts buttoned up?" Buck asked, followed by more laughter from himself.

Buttons growled, and already felt the dynamite coming up his throat, but Athena placed her small flipper on his chest, her eyes told him not to do anything stupid, so, sadly, he swallowed down his explosives, receiving a small pat on the back from Athena. Buck noticed this.

"You're with…him? He's named after clothing parts!" Buck said, envious.

Athena blushed and so did Buttons. "No I'm not with him, and I'm not with you either! Maybe there are _other _reasons I'm not your girlfriend. Like how you're annoying and practically stalk me!" she said. Now Buttons placed a flipper on her back, his eyes telling _her_ to calm down. So she did.

Buck looked taken back. "I do not stalk you!" he said, making Athena cross her flippers and tap her foot, while she gave him a small look. "Okay, once, I snuck in the H.Q. to watch you sleep, but that was the only time, I swear on my acorns!" he admitted.

Athena's jaw dropped. "I didn't know THAT!"

Buck blushed and looked away. "Oh, I didn't do it then."

Athena slapped her head and sighed. "This is gonna be a LOOONG night!"

Meanwhile, Jack was flirting with Elli. "I wrote a song for you." He said, not noticing that Marshal was spying on the two. "It sounds better with music, but here's the lyrics." He cleared his throat. "_What's up Elli, you on my mind all day?_

_I'd love to throw a party, cause you so prett-A!_

_I am a fly guy, so let's make ones to two!_

_Now how about we dance all night? Yeah, just me and you!" _he finished, and Elli had to smile at his kindness. He really was sweet and kind of cute, but every time he tried to flirt with her, he'd say how she SHOULD date him. Not really asking if she'd want to.

Marshal huffed. "Darn, he's smooth." He mumbled to himself as he crossed his flippers. "I mean, I could do better than that, I think I could." Marshal kept on watching them. _Let's see, brown eyes, blue skies; Soft voice, gentle noise. _A few rhymes appeared in his head. He didn't think it was so easy! (A/N Okay, the start of Marshal's new talent in poetry!)

Peanut turned away from Eggy to tell Marshal a little plan they came up with, but when he turned to the penguin, he was staring into space, writing a mental poem about Elli. "Marshal?" the otter pup said, tapping Marshal's shoulder. "Dude, Earth to Marshal!" Peanut hollered, making his friend snap back to reality.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Marshal instinctively hollered when he was back, making Peanut roll his eyes at how predictable he could be.

"Marshal, we've got a great idea. Eggy says he remembers that there was a small toy microphone in the storage house when we were trapped in there-Marshal? Ugh! Not again!" Peanut snapped his fingers in front of Marshal's face. "Marshal, maybe I should remind you this was YOUR problem, and we've got a good idea you're not listening to!" he said when Marshal was back to Earth.

"Sorry, it's just, I'm…tired." Marshal apologized.

Eggy walked up to him. "I see that, but I know where we can get a microphone and maybe a few other things to help rehearse for whatever Athena's gonna sing."

Marshal nodded, but he wasn't really listening. "Hey, hypothetically speaking, do brown eyes and blue skies sound like a good combination in a poem?" he asked, making both of his friend look at him strangely. "What?" he asked with a shrug of his shoulders. He looked over to Jack and Elli again. His jaw dropped. Jack was leaning in to kiss Elli.

Elli leaned away from him and opened her beak to tell him not to, but before she could, Marshal marched over there, grabbed Jack by his tail, and dragged him over to a place where Elli couldn't hear them. "Whoa, dude, what was that for? Oh, and the tails, DO NOT TOUCH!" Jack said, snatching his tail from him angrily, when he had his furry brown tail again, he smoothed out the fur on it.

Marshal sighed, trying not to beat the daylight out of this guy. "Listen Jake,"

"Jack." He corrected.

"Whatever!" Marshal hollered. "Me and Elli have…" he tried to think of the right words. "History." He finished. That worked.

Jack laughed. "Pft! You can keep your history books; I've got my eye on the future!" Jack said, pointing over to Elli, who was trying to stay close to another person so she wouldn't be caught alone with Jack again. "It's bright and sunny in Romance City, if ya know what I mean." He nudged Marshal.

"More like dark and depressing." Marshal murmured, swatting the brown furred arm away.

"Come again?" Jack said, cocking a brow at the penguin.

"Nothing," Marshal said, "Absolutely nothing."

Jack shrugged. "Okay then." He started to walk over to Elli again, but Marshal placed his flipper in front of him, the squirrel turned and saw the aggravated look on the penguin's face. "Dude, really? I can't see my woman!?" he hollered out.

Marshal faced him, now angry. "YOUR woman!? She's M-" Marshal bit his tongue. No way was he going to blurt that out loud, but Jack was already staring at him strangely. "I mean, she's m…magical." He said, smiling nervously. _She's MAGICAL!?!? What kind of person is magic…hey! That might sound good in a poem! _He thought to himself, now smiling at the new discovery.

Jack stared at Marshal as he stared into space. "Uh…Martin?"

Marshal snapped back into reality. _I've gotta stop doing that. _He thought to himself. He faced Jack. "It's Marshal."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Whatever, what's up with you and Elli?"

Marshal blushed. "Nothing!" he hollered out. "What could be up with me and her? I mean, it's not like I'm in love with her or anything!" he laughed like a crazy person, making Jack back away from him. "IT'S NOTHING!" Marshal hollered out.

"What are you talking about?" Elli asked she was staring at Marshal strangely, like the other kids.

Marshal blushed as the group of many eyes was upon him. "Just talking to Jack." He said so silently, it sounded like a whisper.

"Talking? Talking!? That's called HOLLERING! Jeez, what are you trying to do, break my ears!?" Jack said, with his paws over his ears. He looked over at Elli with sad eyes. "He's hurting me." He whimpered, making Elli look a little sorry for him.

Jealousy soared through Marshal. "Oh, I'll break something alright!" Marshal hollered, storming over to the frightened squirrel, but Peanut stood in front of him before he could rip Jack's tail off. "Let me at him! Let me at him!" Marshal said, trying to struggle out of Peanut's grip. It got so bad, that Eggy had to come along to hold him down. Marshal finally called it quits.

"Dude, I thought you wanted to ask these squirrels for help! Why are you trying to murder them!?" Peanut said to Marshal, now that he was calmed down. He sighed when he wouldn't answer, but he knew Marshal was stubborn. He looked up and had to smirk when he saw Jack flirting with Elli again.

Eggy noticed this too. He smelled the air. "Hmm…do I smell jealousy here, Peanut?"

Peanut smiled. "I believe so, and…" he smelled the air too. "It's stinking up Marshal!"

Marshal blushed in both anger and embarrassment, and then shoved them angrily, and when they were shoved to the ground, they rolled on it with laughter. "Shut your traps!" he hissed, but the boys ignored him, and continued to howl with laughter, not even caring that everyone was looking at them. "Now what was that plan you had?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

**At the H.Q. . . . . . . . **

Private fluttered his eyes open. Why did he have the strangest feeling that something was wrong? Everything seemed normal. _Stop worrying yourself Private! _He thought to himself. He could even hear Skipper scolding him. He closed his eyes, trying to get back to sleep. _Everything fine! The H.Q.'s not on fire, the crickets are chirping, the incubation chamber's empty, the… _His eyes popped open, and he ran to the incubation chamber, hoping his eyes were fooling him, but they weren't. The kids were gone. "Skippa!" he shouted out.

Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico then jumped out of their bunks, opening up their defensive stances. "What's wrong Private, I was in the middle of a dream where I was finally giving the Danes the justice they deserve!" Skipper said. Private summoned him over to the kid's bed, and showed his leader it was empty.

"Skippa, what do we do? They could be hurt, or cold, or hungry, or…" the young penguin didn't want to finish. He ran around the H.Q. as fast as his little legs could carry him. He looked under the tables, around the inventions, and even got so desperate, he looked in the fridge. "Gone, gone, gone, gone!" he hollered.

Skipper sighed. "Private." He said, but the little penguin was still running around like crazy. "Private!" he hollered a little louder. He sighed, and when he held out his flipper to Rico, he hacked up a megaphone in his flippers. "PRIVATE!" he hollered in it, making the penguin bang his head at the bottom of the table he was searching under. "Private, you're acting like my mother when I had an icicle stuck in my buttock! Calm down, and that's an order mister!"

Private couldn't believe what he just said. "Don't you care where they are!?" he asked.

Skipper pointed to the fishbowl entrance, which was cracked open a bit.

"What does that—" Private started, but he was interrupted by the sounds of Eggy and Peanut laughing their heads off from outside.

"Does that sound like they're cold and hungry?" Skipper asked, making Private look down a little embarrassed. "Well, they couldn't have gone too far, unless whoever's laughing is laughing louder than King Julien's boom box with extra large speakers." He shuddered at the thought. "Why don't you to Private?"

"Me?" Private asked, pointing to himself.

"Well, they'll notice us if we ALL go. Marshal doesn't sneak out unless it's something tricky, devious, and involves weeks of showering. Besides, this'll be a great test for you, young soldier. You still need to improve in your sneaking skills."

Private looked confused. "I never had a test on sneaking, Skippa." He said.

Skipper smiled. "I was demonstrating the whole time, now go." He then shoved the youngest member of his team out the fishbowl and into the night.

**Well, Marshal's a poet! What will Private see? Find out in the next chapter!**

**Review please! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7 :D**

All the kids headed into the shed where they did find a microphone, but it was a cheap plastic one and not a REAL one. They couldn't find a stage, but Buck and Jack cleared out a few crates to set up a platform for Athena to sing on. Of course, they were still flirting as they did so.

"Hey ladies," Buck said as he lifted a teddy bear, "Look how strong I am!"

Maurisa, who was sitting between Prince J.J. and Elli, sighed. "Wow Buck, a stuffed animal must weight a ton!" she said sarcastically. "And with ONE hand!" she looked over and saw Prince J.J. looking at her strangely. "What?" She shrugged her shoulders, "I might as well have some fun while I'm stuck here."

Jack walked over to them. "You can have fun with me!"

Maurisa rolled her eyes, but Elli blushed and nodded a thank you to him. Maurisa noticed this. "Elli, you KNOW that makes him think you're interested!" she said to her.

Elli blushed. "Well, I can't be RUDE to him."

"Why not, it's fun!?" Maurisa asked.

"Well…I don't know how to be mean." As soon as the little British penguin said that, Maurisa busted out laughing. "What?" Elli asked, but Maurisa was laughing too hard to hear her. She shook Maurisa, but that made the dark furred lemur roll off the crate and onto the floor with laughter.

Maurisa sat up and wiped a tear. "Elli, you are SUCH a sweetheart!"

Elle smiled. "Thank you!"

"You're TOO much of a sweetie. Elli, if a boy does something you don't like, you should slap him." Maurisa sat back up on the crate. "I mean, you gotta do SOMETHING, ANYTHING!" she put her arm around Elli and looked at her like an older sister.

Elli looked taken back and she gasped. "I've NEVER slapped someone before! I couldn't!"

"Yes you could!" Maurisa said.

Elli frowned. She WAS the youngest here, but she HATED to be treated that way. She wanted to be equal, but at times, she felt uncomfortable around everyone. It was if they were her teachers telling her what's good and what's not or how she should act. She wanted to be her own person, but as usually, she put on a fake smile. "Thanks Maurisa, I'll keep your advice in mind." She said. _Like I could EVER slap someone! They'd probably laugh saying how it felt like I just brushed one of my down feathers against them! _She screamed in her head.

Maurisa smiled. "Good. I'm just saying, if Jack's ever a problem for you, just stand up for yourself." She patted her back. "I'm just telling you what I think is best."

Elli nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Maurisa looked up and saw Marshal, Peanut, and Eggy step up on the crates. "Well, let's get this over with." She laid her back on the cleared crate. "This is gonna be a while."

"Maurisa, I don't want this to be long! I miss my floaty! I want to go home!" The lemur prince whined with his heave Madagascar accent.

Maurisa sighed. "J.J., I promise you, when this stupid meeting is over, we'll head STRAIGHT home. No further." She assured, making Prince J.J. calm down.

Marshal stood on the crate and soon to be future practice stage for Athena to sing on, standing in front of Peanut and Eggy. He cleared his throat. "Friends, not to good friends, and ladies and gentlemen…"

"This is a meeting, not a wedding, just get to the point!" Maurisa called out.

Peanut snorted, but stopped when Marshal shot him a glare. The penguin faced the crowd again. "Okay, fine, what I'm saying here is Athena's got a WHICKED good singing voice, and I really, really, want her to sing for her dad's birthday!"

"She's REALLY good! I heard her!" Haley said.

"I did too!" Mostly everyone else said.

Athena blushed. "Oh boy!" she looked down with an embarrassed red face, but then it got even hotter when she felt Buttons pat her back. She managed a small smile. "Uh…thanks Buttons." She said. "I'm still embarrassed, and I'm probably gonna kill Marshal later, but thanks anyways."

"You're welcome." Buttons managed to say to her.

"Anyways, Athena, we've all come to tell you how AMAZING you sing! Please, listen to us!" Eggy said. He leaned on one foot and curled his little wings into little yellow fists. "I am telling you to listen to us!" he started to go overdramatic and get lost in the moment. "You HAVE to listen to the signs, can I get an HECK YEAH!?"

"HECK YEAH!" everyone, except Athena, Marshal, and Peanut said.

"Yes! Can I get another heck yeah!?" Eggy asked again.

"EGGY, FOCUS!" Marshal and Peanut shouted.

"Sorry." The little duckling said.

"Anyways, if Eggy didn't make it clear enough, we REALLY like your singing, Athena. We do and we want to hear it more. Please!!!" Marshal begged.

"Can I get a please!?" Eggy shouted.

"PLEEEAAASSSEEE!" everyone said to Athena.

Athena looked up. "Kill me!"

Buck smirked. "I already thought you were an angel."

Athena let out an annoyed groan and then took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll do it." She said.

Everyone cheered, and J.J. got up on his crate to dance.

"BUT," Athena said to get everyone to quiet down. "I—" she looked up and saw that Prince J.J. was still dancing. "J.J.?" she said, looking up at the brown furred lemur. "Oh J.J.!" she called out louder now. She sighed as he continued to dance.

"Go J.J., it's your birthday! Go J.J., it's your birthday!" The lemur prince chanted, not hearing Athena at all. He did a few disco moves and then a hip hop dance.

"PRINCE J.J.!" everyone hollered.

"What?" Prince J.J. stopped dancing and looked at everyone. "I'm just boogying! Is that a new crime or something!?"

"No, unlike your ability to have sugar," Maurisa said.

Prince J.J. moped and sat down.

"As I was saying," Athena said, "I WILL sing, but I'm gonna need help. I'm not very good with…crowds." She blushed.

Elli ran up and hugged Athena. "That's why we're ALL here!"

"Uh…actually, I was just wondering where my servant was." Prince J.J. said, but was soon elbowed by Buttons. "Ow! You were looking for Athena! You were all, ATHENA, ATHENA, when you were running!"

Buttons blushed. "Shut up." He mumbled.

"Okay, so the plan is that we meet out in the park after school every day until Athena's got this whole _stage fright _thing down. Agreed?" Peanut said. "We've got music, a stage, the singer, and now all we need is the song for her to sing and Athena to get over her stage fright. You're all helping, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Awesome!" Marshal exclaimed. He picked up the plastic microphone and tossed it to an unsuspecting Athena, who was hit in the head. Marshal snorted. "Sorry!" He said, but part of him enjoyed it. "Uh…you're gonna need that."

Athena sat up and rubbed her head. "Oh...that hurt!"

Buck smiled. "There's something on your head."

Athena glared at Marshal. "A bruise?" she asked, but Marshal just smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"No, just a halo!" the flirty squirrel said.

Maurisa snorted. "Wow."

Buck smiled. "I got a laugh! She digs me." He smiled at her.

"It was a…pity laugh." Maurisa said. She let her insult sink in.

Buck was silent for a moment, but then he smiled widely. "I'LL TAKE IT!" Buck then went to high-five his brother. "Who's hot?"

"We're hot!" Jack said.

"Who's not?" Buck asked.

Jack pointed to the other boys. "They're not!"

Marshal growled. He never thought of himself as HOT like King Julien would, but he didn't look any worse than these two. He let the anger out with a deep breath. "Okay, okay, let's just get started. Buck, Jack, I want you to get your guitars! Elli, help Athena out!"

Elli was confused. "Why me?"

"Because, you're good at talking with people, and well… let's just face it, you're pretty good at saying nice things to people when they need it. Remember the time I was all sad and guilty when I broke your leg?"

Jack gasped. "You broke my woman's leg!?"

Marshal growled. "No, I broke ELLI'S leg! I'm surprised you have a woman really!"

"Move on!" Maurisa said, hating that people, Buck and Jack, kept getting off topic.

"And, you told me it wasn't my fault and you made me feel better. That's what I need you to do for Athena." Marshal explained.

Elli smiled. "Thanks Marshal!" she skipped off to Athena.

Athena looked up and saw Elli skipping towards her. "Hey, Elli, could you do me a favor?"

Elli smiled. "Sure, what do you need?"

"Could you hold the microphone for a minute? I need to do a little yoga to calm myself down. I'm nervous." Athena handed her the pink and yellow plastic toy. Athena then walked off and sat down. "Ummm…calming down…taking breaths…Ummm." She closed her eyes and sat down with her little legs under her.

Elli giggled at the sight. She held the microphone and looked at it and sighed. "I wonder what MY hidden talent is." She said.

**Meanwhile. . . . . . **

Private was nervous as he walked around the zoo outside. He was so jumpy, that if it were just a small leaf rustling in the wind, he thought it was a werewolf. He turned around and saw what had to be his ninth false alarm that night! The cool breeze that blew against him didn't help at all. "Aw, they're probably cold!" he feared.

Just then, Private heard a few voices, but they were either far away or they were just whispering. He followed the noise and came to the outside wall of the zoo. He eyed the brick wall suspiciously. "It must be coming from the park!" he did a flip and jumped over the wall's top and saw light shining from the warehouse. "I better get a closer look."

Private put his belly on the cool grass of the park and then sped off. As he got closer, he could recognize a few of the voices as Marshal's, Peanut's, and Prince J.J.'s. "What are the kids doing here? It is WAY past their bedtime!" he whispered to himself.

When Private finally made it, he looked through the window and saw all the kids in there. "What?" he was confused. "Why are ALL the kids here!? Something's up!" he slid to the door to get a good listen in. _Perhaps it's another scheme from Marshal and his friends. _He thought to himself. He pressed his head on the door.

"When is she gonna sing, dude?" Peanut's voice spoke out.

_Who's singing? _Private thought.

"Soon enough," Marshal's voice came next.

"Well it better be! It's kinda freaky being out here at night." Private heard Eggy say.

_No kidding. _Private thought. He decided to see who was singing, so he slid back to the window and looked around. He saw Prince J.J. talking to Maurisa, Marshal, Peanut, and Eggy continuing their conversation, and Nellie and Haley talking. But where was Elli? That's when he saw it. Elli singing! Elli was the singer! "Of course, ELLI'S a singer!" Private shouted out, excited for his little girl.

"Testing, testing, testing," Elli tapped the microphone with her flipper, failing to notice her dad outside the window.

**OH NO!!!!**

**Private's got it ALL wrong! Well, Athena's going to sing at least! :)**

**Review! :D**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey, here's the next chapter! In this chapter, we have a lot of Private in it! While Elli's trying to find her hidden talent, Private thinks that it's singing! Poor Private! **

**Hope you enjoy it! **

It was the first day all the kids had to meet at the park for Buck and Jack, and Athena and Elli were barely focusing on their lessons from nervousness.

"If he says I'm an angel ONE more time, I'm gonna freak!" Athena whispered as she wrote down a few math problems on a lined piece of paper. She was on problem number eight when she felt something poke her in the back. She turned around and saw a note.

She read the front. It was from Marshal. It read:

_Athena!_

_What the heck is Buck and Jack's deal? Especially Jack's! _

_--Marshal. _

_BTW: You're a geek!_

Athena rolled her eyes, but she did feel a small smile curl her beak. Jack liked Elli and so did Marshal. She chuckled and wrote a quick message so the teachers didn't see. She looked up and saw Mason and Phil were grading a few papers. She wrote:

_Ha, ha, and you're a jerk!_

_I was going to say this to your face, and I probably still will, but…_

_I TOLD YOU SO! I TOLD YOU SO!_

_Anyways, Buck and Jack are two OVERLY flirty squirrels! They're not stupid annoying like their dad, they're… flirting so much it makes them annoying. _

_BTW: I KNEW you liked Elli! You're jealous of Jack!_

She quickly slid the note on the floor and passed it to Marshal. As much as she wanted to focus on the lesson, she had to see Marshal's face when he read her message. Once her head was around, she saw Marshal's face light up in a dark red till his whole face was as red as a cherry. He glared at Athena and mouthed he wasn't in love with Elli.

Athena giggled.

After class, Private was surprisingly waiting outside for them.

"Hello, Elli!" He greeted.

Elli was a bit surprised. "Hello daddy! What are you doing here?" Her small British accent spoke out. She ran up and hugged him anyways.

Private's real reason was that he had just heard that Elli was a singer, but he said, "I just wanted to see my little girl!" He chirped in a cheery tone. "So, how was school?" He smoothed away some of the grey, fluffy, down feathers from her soft and light brown eyes.

Elli thought for a minute about her day. She had spent most of it worrying over meeting Jack again, but she didn't want to say that. Her dad hadn't met Jack yet, so she let out a sigh and got ready for her first lie to her father. "Um… alright, but I was going to go with Marshal and the others to do some extra studying."

"Oh, what luck, I'll be at Mr. Mason's and Mr. Phil's today for tea. You can come and talk about something you need extra help on."

"Oh, Um…" Elli didn't know what to say. She looked behind her for help, but the others were already heading towards the outside wall. She faced her dad again. "Sure, that'll be alright." She placed her little flipper in her father's and they walked over to the chimp habitat.

"Remember, you say thank you every time you're complimented or someone gives you something, and you say please when you ask for something." Private reminded her as they waddled over there.

Elli nodded. _I would've been saying thank you A LOT if I was near Jack. _She thought to herself, but out loud, she said, "I will! I've been practicing my manners and such!" she giggled.

Private smiled. "Good girl."

**Meanwhile. . . . . . **

Buck and Jack were already at the storage house. The two squirrels had a few more crates set up, a blanket for everyone to sit on, and they even found a radio to have music. Even Marshal was a little impressed, but that didn't change the fact that he didn't like Jack.

Jack was the first to speak. "Hey, where's Elli?"

Marshal rolled his eyes. "What, you can't see her because her beauty blinded you? Just skip the pickup lines and let's just get started on Athena's singing."

Jack blushed. "One, I wasn't going to use that line until Saturday, and two, Elli _really _isn't there!" He pointed behind the group of zoo animals to show that Elli really wasn't there. "See? I mean, give a squirrel a break!"

Marshal ignored him and looked around. "Ell's, are you there?"

"Is this meanie, you call Marshal, troubling you?" Jack asked.

Marshal growled, but it only got worse.

"Let your Papa Jack make it ALL better!" Jack added.

"THAT'S IT!" Marshal faced Jack. "Listen you, even a complete idiot knows that it's papa _John _not Jack, and two, that same idiot wouldn't want to be protected by a _Papa Jack_!"

Jack's eyes were wide. "Jeez, what's your problem? You've been protective of Elli as soon as we made the deal to meet up here last night!"

Peanut snorted. "That's because he's in love with—"

"I DO NOT!" Marshal hollered, making everyone quiet down.

Jack looked over Marshal. "Either you're lying, or you LOVE to yell."

Athena sighed and slapped smacked her forehead with her flipper. "Oh, this is going to be such a long night." She sighed and slid her back down the crate until her butt was on the floor. She took out a math book and worked on some algebraic expressions to calm her nerves, but even if she figured out the longest college equation in the books, she wasn't going to be completely calm. She had to sing in front of everyone sooner or later.

**Later that day. . . . . .**

Elli sat down next to Private as Mason explained the multiplication chart to her over tea. She sighed out of boredom. She really did know most of this, but she had to lie again. _I will never lie again! This is too much work! _Private sat down next to her.

"So, how's it going?" Private asked.

"Are you sure she's having trouble? She seemed to take the lesson splendidly." Mason said.

"Uh… I'm a fast learner!" Elli said a little loudly.

Private shrugged. "Alright then." He picked up a steaming cup of tea and the smell of sugar filled the air around the small table.

Mason picked up the small cup of sugar cubes and held them in front of the penguins. "Would you like one lump or two?"

"One, please." Private said before the dark furred chimpanzee placed a cube of the sweet substance in his cup. Elli sat and watched it dissolve in the warm drink.

"I say! Phil! Must you play basketball now!? We have company and a little girl at that!" He sat up and smiled at Private and Elli. "Excuse me a moment." He ran over to his friend. "No, Phil! Put the ball down!" he hollered until he was too far away to hear.

Elli and Private looked at each other and started giggling.

"Mr. Mason is so silly!" Elli was laughing now.

Private laughed too. "Yes, so how are you?"

Elli wondered why her dad seemed so interested in how she was doing lately. She then got a bad feeling. Was he… suspicious? Did he know something? Or what if he… already knew?! "I um… I'm doing great! But oh, it's just been so boring! No one's doing anything lately! Especially singing related!" She covered her beak.

Private smiled that he had figured it out, but he could tell that Elli didn't want to talk about it. "Alright then." He shrugged and turned back to his tea. The cube was gone now in the tea's brown liquid. Now that he had supposedly figured it out, he didn't know what to say next.

Elli did. "Daddy, what do you think my hidden talent is?" she was curious about this ever since Marshal got all worked up over Athena's singing. I mean, she must have a talent too!

Private was now… confused. He thought she just admitted she was singing. "Well, have you tried… practicing things?" he asked.

Elli smiled. "I'll have to do that!" she hugged her dad. "Thanks daddy! I'll start right away! I'll find that talent, and when I do, I'm going to… well… I have to know _what _it is first, but I'll use it a lot of it's a good talent!"

Just then, a beach ball soared past their head, knocking both Elli and Private to the ground.

Mason ran over to them. "So sorry, are you alright?" He leaned down and helped Private up, who was helping Elli up.

Private nodded. "We're fine." He picked up the beach ball and tossed it over to the others. The beach ball soared over the gorilla's heads and landed in the tire swing perfectly.

"You still got a good hand there, little bird." Bada complimented.

"Well, actually, it's a flipper, but thank you." Private said.

Elli smiled. "THAT'S IT!" she looked at Joey, Phil, Bada, and Bing sweetly. "May I hold the ball when you're done, please?"

Phil shrugged and tossed it to her.

Elli smiled. "Thank you!" she threw the ball towards them, but it hit Joey in the head instead of the tire swing. "Oops! Sorry!" the ball rolled back to Elli, so the chick tried again, but every time she threw it, it missed. "Oh, one more try," she asked. "Please?"

Private picked up the ball before Elli could do anymore damage. "Uh… maybe later." He said.

Elli sighed. "Alright, maybe it's not basketball." She smiled. "Maybe it's s-"

"I KNEW IT!" Private cheered.

"You knew I was a good swimmer?" Elli asked.

Private frowned. "Oh… well, alright then."

Elli clapped excitedly before running over to the nearest water tank she saw. She was so excited that she didn't know or care what she was jumping into. She leapt and started swimming around in the water. _This is fun! I mean, the clear water, the shiny bubbles, and the hungry Piranhas… wait, what?_ Elli turned her head, and of course, she met the eyes of a dozen Piranhas.

The Piranhas smiled evilly, but there wasn't a way they could smile nicely with their long, sharp teeth.

Elli screamed and started swimming… fast. She was so fast that she caused a whirl pool in the water. She carnivorous fish were spun around in circles until they felt sick. By the time the whirl pool had ended, the fish were too dizzy to swim after Elli.

Elli leapt out the water and into her dad's flippers. The poor little penguin was soaking wet and shaking. "W-when d-did the z-zoo g-get Piranhas?" she stammered.

Private hugged her. "They've been here long enough for you not to know to jump in there! What were you thinking?" he scolded a little, but he softened up when Elli looked up at him with her big, soft, light brown eyes that were tearing up. She had obviously learned her lesson. Private hugged her again, but tighter. "At least you're safe. That's all that matters."

Elli nodded and buried her head in her dad's feathers. It was a touching family moment, but then Elli jumped out with an excited grin curled on her small little beak. "I know! I bet my hidden talent is Piranha swirling! Did you see them whirling around like that? If it's my talent, then I bet I can do it again! Be right back!"

Private's eyes widened. "ELLI! Maybe you should consider—"

"Woo-hoo!" the young little penguin said before jumping in the water again.

Mason walked up to Private, who was shielding his eyes from his daughter swimming around the Piranhas and making another whirl pool around the dangerous fish. "You know, I believe that her talent should be speed."

"Or singing," Private said. "At least that doesn't involve Piranhas!"

**Whoa! Go Elli! Well, her talent is speed of course! XD**

**Review please! **


	9. Chapter 9

**YAY! I finally wrote a chapter! Writers block stinks, but you figure it out! XD **

**Enjoy! I think the next chapter will be either the last one or the one before it. I dunno. But anyways, enjoy! :D**

Practice in the park was exhausting, annoying, and Buck and Jack were there to make it even worse. Athena, who had been stalling about Elli not being there the whole time, got a lucky break and did sing… that time. She was close to throwing the annoying squirrels out the window by the time Maurisa finally said it was getting late.

The young animals trudged home.

Marlene was sitting at the foot of her habitat, twiddling her paws around as she looked around the zoo. She smiled when she saw the familiar little figures coming in the zoo. Peanut said something about being in a… study group? Hmm… she hated to sound like Skipper, but that was pretty suspicious. And it was in the park. The first thing that came to her mind was that they were robbing the snow-cone machine, but she wanted to get a closer look.

The brunette otter then leapt into her crystal clear pool and swam near the brick wall. She lifted one of her small little ears and heard a few voices.

"Athena, really, you should've done it." A boy's voice said. It sounded like Marshal.

A girl, who had to be Athena, then spoke. "Marshal, listen, I can't! I just can't. It's not possible. In fact, the world may end by flying pigs throwing down liquid nitrogen filled water balloons before I … blech… I can't even say it. "

_Do what? _Marlene thought to herself.

"Just try?" A small raspy voice spoke out.

_Buttons_, Marlene thought to herself.

"I'm sorry, Buttons. I just can't. I'll make a fool of myself, and I might mess up my dad's birthday. Do not want." Athena said. Her voice fading away was a sign that she and the others were walking away from Marlene's hearing range.

Marlene sighed, disappointed that she couldn't find out what it was. She did get a suspicion that Marshal was trying to talk Athena into doing something to ruin Kowalski's birthday. She would've thought about it more if a big splash of water didn't just hit her.

"AH!" She wiped her eyes and blinked away the water from her eyes to find a smaller otter swimming towards her.

It was Peanut.

"Mom, are you okay?" Peanut asked. He swam over to his mom and looked up at her with his pale blue eyes, filled with worry.

Marlene nodded and assured the young otter pup she was fine. "So… what were you and your buddies talking, Peanut?" As soon as Marlene said this, Peanut looked away and just stayed in the water as still as he could, kicking his little legs every once in a while to keep from sinking. She could tell he defiantly didn't want to answer it.

"Um… studying… for a test." Peanut finally said after a few minutes of silence and a constant sound of water kicking.

"Uh-huh." Marlene said, not convinced. "You know, Peanut, I can tell when you're lying." She paused and let her son look up at her with a little guilt in his eyes. "And this is defiantly one of those times." She had her arms crossed now.

"Okay, you see, we realized that Athena's really good at something, and we're using it for the good of others." Peanut expected his mom's reaction to be… different than what it was, considering that she just broke out laughing. "What?" The boy looked a little offended.

"You?" his mom questioned. "Trying to help others?" Marlene stopped laughing so much when Peanut was glaring at her, arms crossed and all. "Peanut, sweetie, I know you can be good to others, but you prank… a lot. And that causes me not to believe you sometimes." She placed her paw on his shoulder in a comforting manner.

Peanut sighed. "Whatever." He said, almost sounding like a snobby teenager now.

Marlene eyed him as he swam to the entrance of their cave. She needed to find out more about this. First stop, penguins' H.Q.

**At the H.Q. . . . . .**

Skipper and Kowalski were in a high tension game of cards, go fish to be exact.

"…Do you have any three's?" Skipper asked after a few seconds of tense silence. He looked at Kowalski with a small glare.

Kowalski smiled. "Go fish."

"FISH STICKS!" the lead penguin shouted, slamming his cards on the table.

"Skippa, please," Private said. "Maybe it's luck. I mean, Kowalski's… hatch day is coming up." The Brit penguin said.

"Exactly," Kowalski said, leaning back with a grin on his face.

Skipper rolled his eyes.

"Please, Private, don't fill our heads with that nonsense. If you want something, such as a victory, you have to work hard for it. You can't rely on luck for everything." He said. "Just ask Manfredey and Johnson after they got that _lucky_ coin and wandered into the Leopard Seal's cave. Did luck get them out or was it their training?"

Private sighed.

"Training, Skippa, but you must admit, they were very lucky," Private said. "In fact, that lucky coin did distract the seals—"

"Shush!" Skipper said, waving it off and silencing the young penguin. "Now, let's play again, Kowalski. And we'll see who's lucky now." Skipper took the deck of cards again, but before he could even shuffle them, a knock came from the door.

"Hey, Skipper, it's me." Marlene's voice came from the other side of the door. Not long after that, Skipper was at the door.

"Marlene," Skipper said. "What are you doing here?"

Marlene sighed.

"What? A girl can't visit her friends every once in a while?" She shook her head and decided to get to the real point. "I think something's going to happen on…" she noticed that Private, Rico, Kowalski, and Elli were watching the two in the back. Marlene looked at Skipper and whispered. "Let's take this outside."

Once the two were up there, Skipper spoke first.

"Now, what was it you were trying to say?" Skipper asked.

"I think Peanut's planning something. And it might involve Kowalski's birthday and his daughter." Marlene said.

Skipper raised a brow. "Athena's not the… trouble making type, you know that." He started.

"Well, yes, I know that! It's just… she and Marshal, and I think a few others were talking about doing something. And whatever it was, Athena didn't sound okay to it. Are they planning something for Kowalski's birthday?"

"Well, one, he wants everyone to call it hatch day now, and two, I haven't asked. I'll be sure to ask him, and hopefully clear any suspicious behavior up."

Marlene smiled. "Oh, thank you, Skipper!" She said, part of her wanting to hug him and the other telling her to stay where she was and not to make a fool of herself. She went with the second one.

As if it were fated, a splash rang up from the pool and a wet Marshal, Athena, and Buttons appeared in front of the couple.

Marshal grinned.

"Are we interrupting something here?" He asked. Just the tone in his voice and the look on his face told the two that he was teasing.

Blushing heavily, Skipper told Marshal to come in the H.Q. Once they were down there, he got straight to it. "Marshal, what are you doing for your Uncle Kowalski's party?"

Marshal could've sworn his little beak hit the floor. How, why, and when does he get this information?!

"I… I don't know what you're talking about, father." Marshal said a little too quickly, trying to make a run for it, but Skipper's flippers caught him in time. He sighed. "I'm not doing anything! I swear on… my… textbook!" He smiled. _Yeah, those text books can have three words. Burn, baby, burn, _he thought to himself. He got so lost in his thoughts that Skipper was waving his flipper over his light blue eyes to bring him back to reality.

"Marshal, what are you up to?" Skipper asked. How many times did he ask that question? He lost count. Marshal was always up to something.

"Dad, I… okay, I do have something planned, but… it's a secret!" Marshal smiled. That would work. Wouldn't it?

Nope.

"I can keep a secret, Marshal." Skipper chucked, knowing that _classified_ was probably his catchphrase. "You can tell me."

"Nope, sorry, can't," Marshal said, now backing away from him. "But you know you'll find out soon!" He then ran over to where Athena, Buttons, and Elli were sitting around and watching T.V. "Guys!" He screamed in a whisper. "My dad, he's onto us!"

Athena gasped. "What?!" she said, disbelieved.

"Well… I for one am not surprised. Uncle Skippa's always a step ahead." Elli said.

Athena glared at her. "Oh, shush, you weren't even at practice today." She said a little more harshly than she felt. In fact, if it weren't for Elli, she probably would've sung in front of everyone. But she knew she had to sing soon.

Her dad's hatch day was only two more days away. And it was closing in fast.

"Guys," Athena said, making the young penguins' heads turn to her. "Tomorrow, I'm singing."

Marshal smiled. "Great, cause we've only got one more day to practice."

Athena gulped and nodded.

Marshal smiled and was about to come up with a plan, but he couldn't, considering that their parents were waddling over to them.

"Yeah, dad?" the little trouble making penguin asked.

"Sorry, kids, but we've got to get to our cute and cuddly routine. The zoo's busy today, and we've got a crowd of humans outside. You can't stay inside all day." Skipper said before leading the seven other penguins to the top of the H.Q. where there were humans standing shoulder to shoulder outside the small gate that kept them separated from the Arctic birds. All of them smiled and cheered at the penguins made it up to the platform.

After a few minutes of smiling and waving, the penguins jumped in the pool, waddled around goofy like, and face planting into the pool. It was their most perfected version yet, but… the humans didn't look impressed. Many of the humans yawned, looked off in the other direction, and some even walked off.

"…Skippa, we're not losing them." Private muttered to his leader.

Skipper noticed this. "Hmm… you're right, Private. Kowalski, what seems to be the problem?"

Kowalski took out a clipboard. "Hmm… maybe a space squid invasion took the humans' abilities to enjoy our show."

"Or, maybe we should try a new routine!" Private chirped. "You know, if we add a little more… something." The penguin tapped his flipper under his beak, trying to think of a word. "Just something new," He finally said.

"Well, that might work Private, but the cute and cuddly routine's a classic. And besides, where can we come up with a whole new routine in a few minutes?" Skipper asked.

"I know! Skippa, remember when King Julien's boom box went _missing_?" Private winked and giggled a little.

"Oh, we play music! That'll be new!" Elli chirped in excitement.

After Skipper giving him orders to, Rico slid to the H.Q. to get King Julien's boom box.

"Great job, Rico," Skipper patted his back.

Rico grinned and turned it on.

The first song to play was a boring classical song, making Rico and Buttons both fall to the platform, asleep.

Kowalski sighed. "Do I have to turn it off?"

"Ah!" Marshal screamed, covering his ears. "Turn it off!"

Skipper shrugged. "Guess so." He then turned the large white dial on the cherry red radio and turned it to a rock n' roll station. The loud sound blasted Rico and Buttons back awake immediately.

"Ah! Different station, please," Elli said, flippers over her ears.

Rico turned it again.

_You spin my head right round, right round  
When you go down, when you go down, down  
You spin my head right round, right round  
When you go down, when you go down, down_

"I like this song." Marshal said, bobbing his head to the music a little. "What about you, Buttons?"

Buttons really liked the song! He was surprised to find himself tapping his little orange foot to the music and… then he was… dancing?

_Walk out my house with my swagger  
Hop in that with dough, I got places to go!  
People to see, time is precious  
I looked at my cotty, are ya outta control_

Buttons's feet tapping soon progressed to twirling around and doing flips down the side of the platform.

"Hey, look at that little penguin!" A man hollered out as a group of people ran back over to the penguins' habitat and watched Buttons dance all around.

_Just like my mind where I'm going  
No women, no shawties, no nothin but clothes  
No stoppin now, my Pirellis on role  
I like my jewelry, that's always on whoa_

Buttons was dancing great now! After doing a back flip, he landed on one foot and spun himself around. The crowd cheered him on. Buttons smiled, liking the fact that people were even leaving other habitats to watch the little penguin dance.

Private noticed the little penguin's moves. "Rico, look," Private poked Rico's flippers who was busy staring at a few of the humans and waving.

Rico turned to Private. "Huh?" He saw Private point over to the side. Rico turned that way. "Buttons!?" he called out shocked, and yet, a little amused.

_I know the storm is comin  
my pockets keep tellin me it's gonna shower  
Call up my homies it's all  
Then pop in the next 'cause this mix'll be ours_

Elli laughed, but she wasn't doing it to be mean to Buttons. His moves were… good.

"Everyone, copy Buttons!" She ordered, already doing a few of the moves herself.

Skipper didn't want to go along with it, but the other kids were already stepping to the side right behind Buttons. It looked as if they were in a music video.

Next thing Skipper knew, he was dancing along to it like the others were.

_We keep a fade away shot cuz we ballin  
it's platinum patron that be ours  
Lil mama, I owe you just like the flowers  
Girl you drink with all that goodie power_

At the lemur habitat, King Julien was the first to hear the music. In fact, his booty was already shaking.

"Maurice, what is dat?" King Julien asked the lemur next to him. "I have a great feeling to start booty shaking!"

Maurice looked over at the penguins' H.Q. and looked shocked.

"Your majesty, I think that the penguins' have already beaten you to it!" Maurice said, shocked to even hear those words come out of his own mouth. The penguins didn't dance, especially Skipper. But there they were… dancing.

King Julien thought the same thing. "Oh, Maurice, you make me laugh." He said with a chuckle. "De silly penguins don't dance! It is not possible!" But that was when King Julien actually looked over there. He felt his face grow pale. Not only were the penguins dancing pretty good, but they were stealing all of his fans!

_From the top of the pole I watch her go [down]  
She got me throwin my money a[round]  
Ain't nothin more beautiful to be [found]  
It's goin down down.  
From the top of the pole I watch her go [down]  
She got me throwin my money [around]  
Ain't nothin more beautiful to be [found]  
It's goin down down_

Buttons laughed and took the center of the platform, busting a few of his own moves. Now the penguins' were cheering him on!

"Go Buttons! Go Buttons! Go Buttons!" The kids cheered.

Rico whistled a little. The kid had moves.

A few minutes later, the song ended. And the crowd's cheers died down and began to walk off again.

Buttons, exhausted and breathing heavily, fell over. He looked up at the other penguins as they crowded around him. He grinned and chuckled a little, making the other penguins smile. After helping him up, Buttons brushed himself off and grinned.

"Pretty cool, huh?" He asked.

Before anyone could say anything, a certain lemur king came over to them.

"What was dat about?" King Julien asked.

"What do you mean?" Elli asked.

"Don't play dump with me, silly penguin. Why were you dancing?"

Skipper rolled his eyes.

"None of your business, Ringtail," he said. "And if you don't get out of here soon, Alice will notice that you're out of place."

"So, I am de king. I can be in all de places I please." The king's heavy Madagascar accent spoke out. "Besides, what was out of de places, was de silly penguins dancing!" He eyed Skipper mostly. "What was dat about?"

"Buttons started dancing, and he was positively brilliant!" Private chirped.

King Julien scoffed. "I still think dat I can do better."

Rico growled a little bit, but was held back by Skipper.

"Say what you want, Ringtail, but if you're expecting us to have a dance off, then you're wrong." Skipper said.

"Why?" The king smiled evilly. "Are you turning into a chicken again?"

Skipper growled. "Nope, and I'd even show you how brave I can get if the kids weren't here. They don't need to witness _me_ when I'm angry."

King Julien's eyes widened. He may be stupid, but he knew he was just threatened. "I… I… Oh, I must be heading home before de Alice lady notices me!" The king of lemurs then ran off like a scared little girl.

Thanks to Skipper.

"Way to run of Julien, Skippa!" Private cheered.

"Oh, you're a great dancer, Buttons!" Athena said before hugging him.

Buttons blushed. "Better than Julien?" he grunted out.

Athena thought for a minute. "Well… you're a fast learner. I'll give you that, but King Julien is the dancing king." She saw a small look of disappointment go across her friend's face. She patted his back. "But you're the better person. And you dance well." She laughed. "Just don't listen to that crazy lemur."

Everyone laughed.

Athena sighed, letting her laughter calm down a little. She looked over at the gate of the park and gulped. She was heading there tomorrow to sing. Suddenly the urge to laugh was replaced with the urge to barf. She shuddered.

"Something wrong, Athena?" Kowalski asked.

"Ugh… Oh, it's nothing, dad." Athena said. She then waddled back down the H.Q. to get ready for tomorrow, which she just wished would go away.

**LOL! Well, Skipper always finds things out, huh? And Buttons hidden talent? DANCING! And, no, he's not better than Julien. (I mean, King Julien's the dancing KING!) And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

**REVIEW PLEASE :) **


	10. Chapter 10

**YAY! The last chapter! Kowalski's birthday! XD **

**Oh, and I don't own the song. I re-wrote it a little to make it related to Kowalski's birthday, but the real version was found by Halfhuman123 on YouTube. It's called the **_**Happy Birthday Song **_**by BabyFitz.**

**Enjoy!**

Kowalski was truly excited about his birthday coming up. It was close. He had to wonder what his presents were, and sometimes, he'd made a good guess on what people were getting them based on the person. Knowing Skipper, it might be something that would come in handy for a mission or even have a lesson to it. Rico might get him a painting of his dolly or something that could explode. Private would probably make him something sweet and from the big area in him called his head. That was his teammates, but what about the zoo's newest animals?

Mostly, his thoughts on the zoo's minis were on Athena. She might have made him a new invention! That would be interesting. But what would this new invention be? He focused on that theory of his adopted daughter's present being an invention so much, now knowing that Athena wasn't doing that.

But at the time, Athena was standing in front of an electronic object.

"Marshal, _where_ did you get a karaoke machine?" Athena asked, starring up and down the large device. On the front were the speakers, a small screen for lyrics of songs to show up and of course a few microphones. It wasn't the best karaoke machine on the market, but it was better than a plastic microphone.

"Erm… none of your business," Marshal said in the same tone Skipper would say 'classified' in.

"Well _that_ wasn't suspicious!" Athena rolled her eyes as she spoke the sarcastic term.

"Oh, quit the sarcasm and get up on de crate to shake it!" Prince J.J. said, rooting his penguin friend on.

"Shake it? Marshal, I'm not _dancing_ up here!" Athena faced him with a shocked expression. "I'll make a complete fool of myself! I'll ruin my dad's birthday!" She grabbed Marshal's shoulders and shook him like a gorilla and a monkey cage. "EVIL TUTU'S WILL TAKE OVER LIFE AS WE KNOW IT!" She then released him and panted heavily. "I… sorry about that last one, I… freaked out." She blushed.

"Oh, Athena, calm down!" Eggy said. "You'll do fine!"

"How do you know?"

"Because you're good at singing," Eggy answered flatly.

"Just… let's get to practice." Athena grabbed the microphone. "Okay… OH MY GOSH!"

"What?" Marshal asked, munching on a bag of chips. "Did you forget to feed your calculator?"

Athena glared. "No! We don't have a song to sing!"

Marshal chuckled. "Athena, you really think I didn't think of that already? I've got the song."

"You… do?"

"Uh huh," Marshal reached behind a small crate and picked up a wrinkly sheet of paper. "And it's great!"

"What's the song called?" Athena picked it up and her eyes widened. "Marshal, this song's great! It mentions my dad's love of science… and his birthday date… and it even mentions the word hatch day?" She looked at him with a raised brow. "There's no way a song could be this related to the cause."

Marshal sighed. He figured she'd get suspicious. "Come with me." Marshal took Athena's flipper and walked her over to the corner of the warehouse. "Athena… I… I… I wrote that song." He finally spat out. He waited for laughter, poking, and teasing, but his reaction was…

"Gasp," Athena said flatly, as if she weren't shocked at all. "So what if you write songs? You're better than… them." She pointed over to Buck and Jack when she said this.

"Really?" he squeaked.

"Yeah," Athena then frowned. "This means… I owe you…" she shuddered.

"Hehe, yeah!" the boy smiled. "Do my homework for a week!"

"It isn't gold on paper, Marshal." Athena said. "But I'll do it for… a day." She looked up and thought for a minute then looked back down. "And you're only getting a C."

"I'll take it!" Marshal gave her a small high-five and to practice they went.

_Kowalski's birthday…_

"I wonder what this big hoo-ha is for your hatch day, Kowalski." Skipper said, sitting down on a picnic blanket with his team mates at his side at the lemur habitat. "I've never seen this many people at Ringtail's with a smile on their faces." He chuckled. He let his blue eyes wander around the zoo, seeing all the animals waiting eagerly for his strategy expert's birthday surprise.

"I don't know, Skippa," Private said. "But whatever it is, it must be whicked!"

"Or a trap," Skipper's eyes widened and he sat up. "Evacuate!"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Skipper." Kowalski said, sitting him down. "If anything, it'll be Julien doing something. Probably dancing," he said.

"You're right." Skipper said. "Now… EVACUATE IMMEDIANTLY!"

"Music," Rico grunted out.

"Exactly, we don't want to hear Ringtail's music." Skipper said.

"No, no, he hears music. I hear it, too." Kowalski said.

Private gasped. "I do as well, Skippa!"

"Huh, I hear it as well, team. It doesn't sound like dancing music so far. Just… guitars strumming," Skipper sat down. "But who do we know that can play a guitar?"

"You do, Skippa." Private said, but was immediately slapped on the back of the head.

"Well, if I'm here, then it can't be me, can it?"

"Sorry," Private uttered out.

Kowalski gasped. "You used the time machine, too, didn't you!?" He accused, believing that a future Skipper was in his presence. Not too long after that, the two were arguing over how stupid that sounded and how dangerous it was to the universe.

"Hey, um… I'm Athena." Athena's voice reached Kowalski's ear holes.

"Athena?" Kowalski turned his head around, and indeed, she was on stage. This confused him. He knew as well as everyone else that Athena had stage frights. He started to get worried, knowing that it wouldn't be hard for Athena to get sick and puke in front of… everybody in the zoo.

Athena felt like the world was frozen and everyone starred at her, waiting for her to do something. The girl knew that just talking wasn't going to keep their attention for long, but she wanted to delay the singing all she could. She felt her stomach churn, her flippers seemed to freeze and shake as if she was standing in the middle of snow, but somehow the sun that shone upon her seemed ten times hotter on her. Either that or it was the embarrassment rushing through her. Like her whole body was blushing. She wouldn't be surprised if it was so.

"H-hey, I'm here to," she gulped, "wish my dad a happy hatch day and… you know, it's his hatch day." For one of the first times in her life, Athena felt stupid. She realized that some of the animals were turning away and she puffed out her chest with a determined look on her face. She was going to sing.

Buck and Jack, who were sitting to the side of the stage, read her face and began strumming.

Athena closed her eyes, pretending the others weren't there all she could, but the chances that everyone wouldn't see her just because she couldn't see them? She knew it wasn't possible. After her eyes were closed, her beak was open. Then she sang.

"_This is just a little something_

_That I want you to remember,_

_Cause today is a special day_

_That I want you too…what rhymes with remember? Huh?"_

Athena let her eye open one peek. She looked for her dad, but she couldn't find him. There were too many animals in that one little habitat. She gulped. The animals weren't booing or turning away, in fact, all eyes were on here.

"_Word on the street that someone's getting old here,_

_It's not me, or she, or he, I believe it's you dear._

_I'm so lucky to once again with you near._

_One more time and now you're turning one more year." _

Athena didn't know exactly when or how it happened, but her voice was getting louder. When did this turn fun? She didn't know, but she just went with it. The lyrics poured out of her beak like a water fall, happy that it wasn't her breakfast she barely nibbled that morning. At least her dad would know why she was so nervous now.

"_It's you! Yeah, it's you!_

_You're the main attraction today._

_Yeah it's you; you're on year older, _

_On the 22__nd__ of October,_

_It's your hatch day… happy hatch day."_

Buttons smiled and cheered her on silently, finding himself tapping his now dance loving feet to the rhythm of the song.

"This is great." Marshal said, smiling.

"Dude, we did something… good." Peanut said.

The penguin, otter, and duckling looked at each other shocked.

"We're still… pranking, right?" Eggy asked.

"Oh, yeah, duh," Marshal and Peanut said at the same time.

"_I wish you all the love and happiness in the world._

_Lots of wishes come true from your favorite girl… me!_

_Give you lots and hugs and kisses oh so sweet._

_You deserve all of the best things you can meet."_

Elli smiled. She wanted to see her dad's, as well as her uncle's faces, so she ran in the crowd to find them. She was zooming past all the animals, saying excuse me and pardon when she bumped into them. Then… it hit her as she was running faster and faster.

"I'm… fast." She paused and considered this. She then smiled. "I'm fast!" Elli liked it. It may not be fighting off piranhas or swimming, but it was nice. She figured out her hidden talent at last. She made a quick note to put her ventriloquist dummy away, which was her next theory for her hidden talent. It was giving her the creeps anyways.

"_It's you! Yeah, it's you! _

_You're the main attraction today._

_Yeah, it's you. You're one year older._

_On the 22__nd__ of October,_

_It's your hatch day… happy hatch day!" _

Buck and Jack strummed their little instruments quickly before finally ending the last note on the song.

Athena smiled and faced the crowd, then frowned. Now that the song was over, what should she do?!

"Umm… thank you." Athena said.

As soon as she said that, the zoo filled with cheers and hoots for the little penguin.

"Athena! Athena! Athena!" They all chanted.

Athena then felt her stomach churn. "Hehe, be right back." She threw the microphone behind her and scurried off the stage, flipper over the tip of her beak.

After Athena rested for a bit, the loud chanting had winded down to one familiar voice.

"Athena! Athena! Athena!" Kowalski ran up to her.

"Dad!" the girl turned around, felt her father pick her up, and hug her tightly. "Ow… so… you… liked… it?" She choked out. Kowalski heard her choking and loosened his grip on her. "So, you liked it? I mean, it's okay if it was terrible. In fact, it probably was. I mean, I know it was." She stammered on.

"No, Athena, that was… the best present I ever had." Kowalski leaned down and smoothed out the feathers on her head. "It was a surprise, alright."

"But dad," Athena started. "You're _supposed_ to say that. I could've walked up there in a clown wig and you'd still say you loved it."

Kowalski chuckled. "Is that so?"

"I… I guess."

"Well… I thought, no, I _know_ you were great out there. And I know everything."

Athena and Kowalski laughed.

Athena hugged her dad. "Happy hatch day, dad," she said, burying herself into her dad's shoulder. She smiled as the familiar feelings of her father's feathers wrapped around her. "I love you."

Kowalski smiled and kissed the top of Athena's head.

"I love you, too, Athena." He patted her back. "Now, let's crack open that piñata!"

Athena giggled, knowing her dad's obsession with candy. And then the two waddled off.

**I hope you all enjoyed it! **

**Review if yah want! Bye. :D**


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